Hosting the Eurovision Song Contest isn’t cheap and in order to be able to arrange the best possible show, the Danish broadcaster, DR, has applied the Ministry of Culture, for extra money to help financing it. The politicians will soon be deciding how much help DR can expect.
Denmark last hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2001. Back then DR operated within a budget of 70 million DKK. For the 2014 contest it is expected to end somewhere between 160 – 170 million DKK, but it doesn’t mean we can expect a more extravagant Eurovision. What has happened over the 13 years is that the event now consists of three shows instead of just one. The number of participating countries is likely to be around 40, where as only 23 countries took part in 2001.
At the press conference, a couple of weeks ago, following the announcement of Copenhagen as host city, Mayor Frank Jensen told that Copenhagen in total with contribute with 40 million DKK to the event. DR will have to throw in an amount themselves, just as EBU (The European Broadcasting Union) and various sponsors will contribute.
In order to host the best ever Eurovision Song Contest, DR has now applied the Ministry of Culture for financial help. If the politicians agrees this could give the broadcaster more than 50 million DKK.
The special fund they would be receiveing the money from comes from the media license the Danes pays in order to have TV, radio and internet. The various TV and radio stations in Denmark already receieve an annualy amount of these money and what is left each year they can apply for in terms of special events, extraordinary programmes and such. This is being administrered by the Ministry of Culture. Currently the whole amount on this account is 53 million DKK. It can be decided to give it all to DR to use for the Eurovision Song Contest, but it can also be that they just receieve a portion of it.
The socialdemocratic spokesperson within the Media area says: "Normally I believe that these fundings should benefit as many as possible, but I think this is a special situation. It is unforseen expences and I believe that DR should be given the entire amount".
The Liberals (Venstre) are also positive towards acknowledging the need for extra money to DR, but not nessasarily the entire amount. Their spokesperson within the Media area, Ellen Trane Nørby says: "DR already gets 3,5 billion DKK and DR’s economy is in better shape than expected. There are also other applicants".
For this year’s Eurovision Song Contest SVT had a budget of 115 million DKK, which actually is the lowest seen in newer years. The most expensive one was in 2012 where Azerbaijan spent a total of 261 million DKK. The budget in Germany in 2011 was at 224 million DKK, in Norway in 2010 it was at 123 million DKK, in 2009 in Russia it was 239 million DKK where as the Serbian broadcaster had a budget of 142 million DKK for the contest in 2008.
One million DKK is equal to 0.134 million EUR, 112 million GBP and 0.187 USD.
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