Following the Eurovision 2025 final in Basel, Norwegian broadcaster NRK has called for changes to the contest’s voting rules, citing concerns over vote manipulation, particularly related to Israel’s entry.
Reasons behind NRK’s demand for changes
Norway’s Head of Delegation, Mads Tørklep, said the current system – which allows up to 20 votes per credit card and phone – can be exploited for coordinated voting. NRK has now formally petitioned the EBU to revise the rules. NRK isn’t the only broadcaster to propose reforms to the televoting system. Yle has also expressed concerns about last year’s televote. As well as this, RTVE, RÚV, RTV SLO and RTÉ have all shown concern about the televote.
The most important NRK points are:
- A major discrepancy between public votes and jury scores, especially for Israel, which received 297 public votes but only 60 jury points.
- Substantial state-backed campaigns by Israel—including promotions on YouTube, social media, and Times Square in New York—raised concerns about political influence.
- Allegations of “vote stuffing”: some individuals reportedly cast up to 80 votes for Israel despite not watching the broadcast.
Tørklep added that NRK requested access to detailed voting data for Norway, but the EBU denied the request, citing concerns that releasing the data could facilitate further manipulation.
What comes next?
EBU’s governance group is set to review voting procedures this summer, followed by discussions with all participating broadcasters in Croatia later this year. NRK intends to continue pressing for reforms to ensure the integrity and neutrality of Eurovision voting.
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News Source: vg.no
Photo Credit: Corinne Cumming / EBU
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