Is the EBU considering moving Eurovision 2019 to Austria?

A source within the EBU suggests that the EBU is considering moving the contest to Austria, the Israeli commercial TV channel Reshet 13 reports. The video of the news programme will be online soon. 

Whether that’s because of potential safety issues or boycott threats, is unclear. Also what would happen with Israel as the automatic finalist, is uncertain.

Meeting to take place tomorrow

Channel 10 reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold a meeting tomorrow with the Attorney General of Israel and ministers of Culture and Communications in attendance. According to reports, the minister of communications will propose that both UAE & Saudi Arabia are given the opportunity to participate at next year’s event. Minister of Culture leader, Miri Regev has also allegedly refused to offer financial support to the broadcaster. The politician feels that IPBC would be incapable of pulling off the event successfully.

The story so far

Recent reports suggested that it wasn’t “at all a given” that Jerusalem would host Eurovision 2019 despite previous claims to the contrary. These reports were given added reliability when new reports arose that claimed that the Israeli government would “drop their demand” that Jerusalem must host Eurovision 2019 if Israel were to host the contest at all. In addition, it is believed that brodcaster KAN will now be given full responsibility of organising the contest. You can read the full details of these stories in our previous articles linked below:

“Jerusalem isn’t at all a given” says Israeli Official

Israeli government to drop Jerusalem demand

What do you think of the latest developments in the 2019 contest hosting saga? Do you think the EBU should move the contest to Austria? Or, do you think that Israel are making enough compromises to secure their chance of hosting? Let us know @ESCXTRA!