Eurovision Asia: SBS drops out of the plans for the contest in the Asia-Pacific region

Eurovision Asia: SBS drops out of the plans for the contest in the Asia-Pacific region
Thursday, 27 May 2021

  • While the plans for the American Song Contest are fully underway this isn't the case for the Eurovision Asia format as SBS has announced that it has pulled out from the idea of a Eurovision edition for the Asia-Pacific region.

    Back in 2017 the idea of an Asian version of the Eurovision Song Contest for the the Asia-Pacific region seemed more than feasible. Following the announcement of the contest, a number of national broadcaster expressed their interest to join the project. Among them were broadcasters from Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu which would  join Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, with the last six being candidate host countries for the first edition.

    However the ongoing global covid-19 pandemic with the consequent quarantine and the implemented travel restrictions along with the geo-political tensions in the region made the idea of the Asian version a complicated objective. 

    Josh Martin the Head of Delegation for Australia and Commissioning Editor for SBS taliking to  TV Tonight confirmed the news say among other things: 

    “I think it’s fair to say we’ve rescinded our rights. We spent a number of years trying to figure out how to do it and then the global pandemic came along.It’s very different to the way Eurovision started post-World War Two, as a means of bringing people together. There was a real purpose in establishing it. Eurovision Asia is difficult for a number of reasons: time zones, language barriers, all sorts of issues. We tried so hard but that was one that we just could never quite pin down. It’s kind of like any TV show. You put a lot of things into development, and not all of them get up. So that was one that we could not, for whatever reason, make work.”

    Despite initial obstacles, in 2019  in 2019 some new initiatives brought the format int he frontline again. Following the hosting the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the Gold Coast picked up the opportunity to push things forward regarding the mulit national new event. The local council presented to Blink TV and SBS a proposal including the Australian national format and the Eurovision Asia contest making things seem more feasilbe than ever. 

    The The contest was set to take place in December 2019 at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre with even the schedule going public. Nevertheless, the difficulties that alreadyexisted reinforced by the extraordinary circumstances covid-19 created led sadly to the cancellation of such plans. 

     

    News Source: ESCXtra.com