Portugeese broadcaster RTP and Lisbon are set to organise one of the most cost efficient Eurovision editions ever. Gonçalo Reis, RTP’s CEO, was recently interviewed with Portuguese newspaper O Jornal Economico.
“The cheapest Eurovision Song Contest ever will be held in Lisbon in 2018, thus having one of most interesting and creative proposals ever made, with the capacity for designing Portugal… I can say today that we are going to organize the cheapest Eurovision Song Contest ever, and I am confident that our creative teams will develop one of the most interesting Eurovision ever.”
In the last decade or so Eurovision has cost a host country and city approximately 20 to 50 millions Euros. Malmö hosted Eurovision in 2013 at a cost of approximately €19 million so we can expect a budget close to or maybe even lower than that.
Festival da Cançao to be hosted outside Lisbon
Gonçalo Reis goes on to talk about the Festival da Cançao part of the RTP project. This is the national selection to choose Portugal’s Eurovision song.
We started by betting on Festival da Cançao, which we do not want to dissociate from the Eurovision Song Contest. We had the option to hold Festival da Cançao outside the capital, thus decentralizing the event. After technical visits, we chose Guimarães [for the next edition]. We are committed for the next four years to hold Festival da Cançao, where we will choose our Eurovision representative, outside the capital. So let’s go through the country and give an opportunity to several Portuguese cities to stage the Festival da Cançao!
‘ A Portugal open to the world’
Gonçalo explains that for Lisbon RTP is in process of developing an idea to help promote the image of Portugal overseas.
“Our creative teams are developing the concept to convey the image of a contemporary Portugal, a Portugal open to the world, a culture of inclusion, a culture of tolerance, a positive culture. This will be a mobilizing project for all the creative industries involved, for Lisbon and for Portugal, which will design the country and help it to surf this wave of great notoriety, this positive wave that the country as a whole is going through, in terms of an international projection.”
Gonçalo Reis concludes:
The Eurovision Song Contest is a unique spectacle, it is an event that goes beyond RTP. RTP has all the conditions to produce a major television event to promote our creative industries and entertainment industry. Now the Eurovision Song Contest is something that involves the host city, the tourism and the whole country!
Do you think RTP can deliver Eurovision on a small budget? What would you like to see more or less of at future Eurovision contests? Let us know in the comments below or on social media @escXtra
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