We need to talk about Martin Green, director of the Eurovision Song Contest.
This morning, he held a Q&A event with fans, OGAE representatives and accredited fan media outlets, this year called "Specialized media". Of course, I attended. Some things that were said were interesting. Some things that were not said were, of course, more interesting.
In a packed conference room of the Wien Museum, Green answered questions from people present and Rob Lilley-Jones, host of the Euro Trip Podcast. People could scan a QR code and put in questions, of which a few were picked.
A question on the meeting of the former ORF president with the Israeli president was prominently featured as one of the top rated questions for most of the event, but was not addressed.
Nevertheless, Green offered some insights, summarised below:
- There was no direct vote on the participation of KAN at the EBU General Assembly in December last year as this has led to 'discomfort among several broadcasters'. The initially announced vote was cancelled in light of the Gaza ceasefire in October last year. Green also highlighted the precarious independent position of KAN as Netanyahu threatens to privatize it, which would also lead to their EBU membership (and thus Eurovision participation) revoked.
- He is "supremely confident" in the current voting system and has seen "no evidence of disproportionate advertising this year"
- He gave a few insights into voting patterns, highlighting how "most people now vote between one and five times, and for several countries". In the near future, he wants to have the public vote co-ordinated entirely through the Eurovision app, but national legislation on public televoting complicates this considerably.
- The preparations for the Asian spin-off in November are going "really well", with various participating broadcasters now present in Vienna to check things behind the scenes.
- Regarding further expansion and returning countries, he said Canada's CBC is mainly interested in joining the EBU as a Full Member with Eurovision not the key priority - and regarding a potential return of Hungary, he simply said "If it happens, it happens."
- By the end of this week, we will have more info on JESC. (Right now, no host country has been announced for the next edition.)
- He does not believe participation fees will go up next year as there is "a robust opt-in model" among broadcasters. They also want to have more revenue from ticket sales and merchandising to ease participation fees for broadcasters.
- Finally, he mentioned the Eurofan thing on Eurovision.com as a "great engagement tool" that is definitely "not Big Brother-y, but just a better way for fans to have a say". Make of that what you want.
When asked about possible outcomes of an Israeli or an Australian victory and other aspects related to the future of Eurovision, Green refused to comment several times, stating how he "does not want to talk about the outcome in any way".
The title of this blog post was not chosen randomly. When the moderator introduced a question on sponsor MoroccanOil with saying "This is something that many of us in the room are wondering", Green cut him off and said, and I quote literally (and I have it recorded), "Do you want it in inches or centimetres?".
This brings me to my conclusion: for someone who is actively disliked by many in the fandom (or so it seems at least), I must admit that he is not shy or hiding away. He is in the media centre all the time talking to journalists, easily approachable. During the Q&A he cracked several jokes which were crowdpleasers. He is a very smooth talker.
Please don't get me wrong though. I am not defending him - I still believe that under his auspices, the EBU and Eurovision organising body have made several key mistakes that have brought the Contest in the mess it currently finds itself in.
But at the same time, as counterintuitive as it may sound, Martin Green CBE does his public job very well. Even if he himself believes that some or most of what he says doesn't make a lot of sense necessarily, he does it well from a public speaking/PR standpoint. And that, I have to admit, is something I ultimately respect.
But please one person one vote okay thanks bye Martin xxx
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