SMRTV reveal further 1in360 national final details

Earlier this evening, the San Marinese broadcaster, San Marino’s broadcaster officially revealed more details regarding the televised round of their national selection ‘1in360’.

Friday heats, Saturday Final

After much speculation as to where and when the national final would take place, San Marino have announced that the first two shows will be pre-recorded, with the final coming live from Bratislava. The pre-recorded shows are a similar fashion to this year’s French national final. Rumours earlier this month suggested that the final would take place in Vienna, as rehearsals were currently taking place there. The press release tonight confirmed that a song writing camp is currently taking place in Vienna.

The dates and times are confirmed as the following:

1st Show
Friday 9th February – 20:00 CET

2nd Show
Friday 16th February – 20:00 CET

Final
Saturday 3rd March – 21:00 CET

Both the recorded shows and live final will be available to see on the broadcasters main channel San Marino RTV. That channel is accessible on both terrestrial TV and via the Hotbird satellite. Additionally, the show is available to an even wider audience through live streaming on the 1in360 YouTube channel.

Voting format revealed, online vote comes at a price

The Sammarinese broadcaster will select the winner using a combination of jury and online public voting. The latter will open on 23rd February. Both the jury and online voting will follow standard Eurovision format, with the finalists receiving 1-12 points in order of preference. The broadcaster has announced that the online vote will take place via PayPal and therefore come at a cost. That cost will consist of one Euro per vote. The broadcaster explains the reason for this. They also explain how exactly they will split the voting:

To avoid a repeat of the vote fraud allegations surrounding the fan vote and ensure maximum fairness and as representative a result as possible, two measures will be put in place:
The online vote will be conducted via Paypal, whereby each Paypal account will be limited to one vote at EUR 1.

The Sammarinese broadcaster have come up with a complex procedure for the televoting. Aside from the PayPal voting, the amount of votes will determine how big the televoting percentage will be.

If the people cast less than 50,000 votes, the public vote will count for 10%. That will then increase the more votes come in. If people cast between 50,000 and 100,000 votes, the televoting will count for 20%. Moving forward, if between 100,000 and 200,000 votes get sent to the Sammarinese broadcaster, it will count for 30%. Between 200,000 and 250,000 votes will make sure the televote counts for 40%. If SMRT receive more than 250,000 votes, they will count the televote for 50%.

That means the jury vote can also vary. At least, the jury vote will count for 50%. At most, however, the jury vote could count for 90%.

Studio versions before 23rd February

To prepare for the shows, the eleven finalists attended several songwriting camps. During those, they shared ideas and developed two songs with the help of experienced producers and songwriters. Interestingly, the candidates also had the opportunity to work on the songwriting process for the other finalists.

In the first two shows, the finalists will perform acoustic versions of their songs. The judges will be providing feedback. At the end of the second show, the judges will select one song for each candidate. That will become their official entry for the grand final.

San Marino have announced that they will release studio versions of these songs to the public no later than 23rd February. That gives fans the chance to hear them before the artists perform them during the national final.

What are you thoughts on San Marino’s national selection and in particular, the public voting method outlined? Let us know what you think in the comments!