Just days after Kate Miller-Heidke won the right to represent Australia at Eurovision 2019, the country's future in the global singing competition has been secured with a new deal.
SBS, along with production partner Blink TV, have secured Australia’s participation as a competitor at the Eurovision Song Contest for the next five years, until 2023. This year's contest, taking place in Tel Aviv will mark Australia’s fifth year competing, but until now, it’s been by invitation of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
“SBS has been the home of the Eurovision Song Contest in Australia for 35 years and we’re thrilled at this invitation to become a more permanent member of the Eurovision Song Contest family," SBS Commissioning Editor Josh Martin said.
"We will continue to showcase Australia’s amazing talent and diversity to hundreds of millions of people across Europe and the world. It highlights the power of music to bring people together – even from polar opposite sides of the globe. Thank you Europe!”
Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest Jon Ola Sand added, "The Australians have long been huge fans of the event with a great number of loyal viewers year on year and when they were invited to participate in the 60th anniversary edition of the Contest, we couldn’t have imagined quite how popular their artists would become.
"It was a natural progression for us to agree to their inclusion as a participant for the next five years as they bring so much to the table and we very much look forward to welcoming them to Tel Aviv to perform, alongside the 41 other exciting participants in what’s sure to be a fantastic celebration of music.”
It comes after years of speculation that Australia could host a first-ever Asia Pacific version of Eurovision. Eurovision Asia was suggested to feature 20 countries from the Asia Pacific region to compete in the inaugural contest.
Late last year, SBS told The Music that it is continuing to explore options with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and Eurovision owners.
Meanwhile, last Saturday night's event was a hit for the network, pulling in almost 300,000 viewers.
The 2019 Eurovision semi-finals will be held on May 14 and 16 before the grand final on May 18.
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