Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet is reporting that the newly announced producers of the 2024 contest intend to shorten the 2024 contest run time.
Shorten run time is high on the agenda
Following the addition of Christer Björkman and Per Blankens to the SVT core team who will be guiding the creation of the 2024 contest. The desire of producer Ebba Adielsson to shorten the contest length has been reiterated. Echoing her sentiment, Per Blankens has confirmed that SVT does intend to cut the contest broadcast length by an hour.
The most recent contest in Liverpool ran in excess of four hours. The time in Eastern countries is specifically referenced. In Caucasian countries for instance the show does not end until well after 3 o’clock in the morning limiting the potential viewers in said countries
Additionally the pair quashed rumours that had been circulating that there would possibly be a second chance round introduced to the Eurovision semi finals to help allocate the finalists.
Exact ideas about how the contest could be shortened have not been stated. In previous attempts to cut down the contest, the voting sequence was a prime target, but with the new voting system in place, there is little leeway to shorten it without altering how votes are presented in its entirety.
How has the contest been shortened in the past?
Over-runs are not a new thing to Eurovision. In 2005 the contest infamously overran by over an hour. This was largely blamed to the voting sequence, and saw the practice of each individual point from the respective voting nations being cut in favour of the top 3 being read out while the the remaining points were only presented on screen. In subsequent contest this was shortened further to only having the 12 points being stated by the individual spokesperson. While not a direct shortening in itself, the adaption of the voting system in 2016 to have the jury and televotes split apart was seen as a way to deal with viewer fatigue in the voting sequence by keeping suspense in the final voting announcements instead of a situation where the winner is known well in advance of the end of voting.
The Journey to Eurovision 2024
The Nordic country will be hosting the 68th edition of the competition following Loreen’s historic win at Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool. One month after 2023 contest taking place SVT revealed the Core Team that will be working on the competition.
Four cities were in the running to host the 68th edition of the competition (Gothenburg, Malmö, Örnsköldsvik and Stockholm), with SVT settling for Malmö as the host city. The competition will take place on the 7th, 9th & 11th of May at Malmö Arena.
What do you think of the changes to the reference group composition? Are there any changes you’d like to see them make ahead of next year’s contest? As always, let us know what you think by commenting below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tiktok as we start our preparations for Eurovision in Sweden next year!
News Source: Aftonbladet
Photo Credit: Sarah Louise Bennett/EBU
