How TV stations join together for Eurovision - and who messed up

[@NekoNekoQuatorze]

of COURSE it's the Italians who were late! XD

[@giovanniscg8540]

Yeah 43 seconds is the same as one hour right? You know this is racism?

[@RyanTaylor2000]

@@giovanniscg8540bruh

[@zedtrek]

Uahahahahha

[@theyes647]

@@giovanniscg8540 what are you on about

[@NekoNekoQuatorze]

@@giovanniscg8540 I didn't want to imply all Italians are slow, I wanted to callback to the fact that RAI is often a few seconds late whenever a set time is scheduled for a programme (and it dates back to at least the 90's)

[@dasmysteryman12]

This video if anything reminds us that Eurovision is still a massive feat in broadcast engineering. It's still one thing for one local network to provide the feed for all broadcasters all over the world like the Oscars. It's another for almost 40 broadcasters having their own separate feeds for one event.

[@bobtahoma]

Thing is though, the screw up here is to something so basic. No excuse on RAI’s part other than them sucking.

[@jonathanloh1634]

THeres the Olympics as well

[@reamsel]

Oscars is really only broadcasted in america. The rest of the world dont view that

[@yeahnoway111]

@@reamsel That is not true at all. The oscars are broadcasted in many countries

[@CityWhisperer]

@@yeahnoway111 In Europe they definitely don't get the following that Eurovision does, not by a long shot.

[@cgfischer]

it's nice to see that France and UK still give credits to their local team.

[@emile__t]

During lasts years, France TV local credits were broadcasted instead of the Eurovision closing sign 😠

[@AdamManeYT]

Czech TV does it too. :)

[@krisx74]

Don’t know about you… but watching Europe all join (almost) in synchronised unity for this one moment gives me goosebumps… even though politically and culturally we have many differences… the second when all these channels connect at the same time is pretty incredible….

[@five-o5362]

I can't say if this is a windup or if you're seriously blown away by a basic concept of TV broadcasting.

[@alle8689]

@@five-o5362 God damn you're boring

[@chiguire]

@@five-o5362 it's just very easy to take it for granted

[@SarahIlayda]

Yesss❤

[@bloss0myt]

Yea but then Italy ruined it 🙄

[@JMG_86]

Leave it to the Italians to do it "their own way" Thanks for the compilation, always fascinating!

[@Charlizzie]

Is it true that Italian TV are always late in scheduling?

[@munmilks]

@@Charlizzie RAI is trash in general.. look at how badly last years eurovision was organised,,,

[@LorenzoLeonardini]

@@Charlizzie yes...

[@NekoHibaCosplay]

@@Charlizzie Absofuckinglutely yes Eurovision is a nightmare for Italy broadcasting because since the ESC has such a tight schedule, they can't milk the commercial spots out of it

[@1sonyzz]

''to do their own way'' and join the axis powers

[@DickvanSoest]

A nice technical detail from long ago, when we all had CRT TVs. Your TV synced to the signal of the national broadcaster. A sync signal was sent out every 1/50 of a second, at which your TV knew that a new frame was being started. At the start of the Eurovision program they had to switch over to the signal of the EBU, and that signal was out of sync with the national broadcaster. They did that right in the middle of the EBU theme music (which is a melody by Marc-Antoine Charpentier played twice). One half of the theme song was transmitted by your local broadcaster with a "local" UBU logo, the repetition was taken from the EBU, with their logo. Your TV would have to resync, you would usually have a rolling image for one second, a white bar moving from the top of the screen to the bottom. Same at the finish of the program, switching back to the national broadcaster.

[@kFY514]

That must have been _really_ long time ago. Full-frame TBCs have been around since at least the early 90s, likely much earlier.

[@PhirePhlame]

If it was enough to cause a brief roll, then a modern digital TV receiving the analog feed would have probably been forced to go black for a second. Not sure why analog sync on a digital screen is so much slower, but it is.

[@michaelmcdonald2348]

I would have thought they would have genlocked to the EBU feed during the local pre programme ident to allow a clean switch over. I certainly don't remember any sync interruptions on the BBC coverage here, and they were experts at this kind of thing with programmes like "Nationwide".

[@SteveW139]

@@michaelmcdonald2348 Was BBC NatLock created to support the Nationwide junction?

[@jamesmt142]

The usual caveat here that VHS recordings seriously exaggerate non-sync cuts compared to what went out at the time. However, yes - Te Deum aired twice, one with the local slide and then into the world feed.

[@stthecat3935]

I like how Austria was so early that they put a “Teletext” slide before the Eurovision ident while Italy was like “oh no im late” when the others started playing

[@imvineprexde]

the german broadcast just had a freeze frame and waited aswell

[@gentuxable]

@@imvineprexde yeah but for Germany is because they're not allowed to show ads at this time.

[@2Draw]

It's nothing special. Austria puts that Teletext slide before many programmes, not just Eurovision, and the reason has nothing to do with being early to show said programmes.

[@schnitzelsemmel]

It's not a teletext slide but information how to watch the program with subtitles (which are provided on teletext page 779 because orf doesn't yet do dvb subtitles) and the voice explained that on audio track 2 there's audiodescription

[@clarkejoseph49]

Austria still do Teletext?

[@GiorgioNozzoli]

Incredibile enough, the semifinals broadcasts on Rai 2 were absolutely timed to perfection, even the ad breaks! That’s unfortunate that this time the main channel failed to sync (even a country in the voting sequence was not broadcasted due to late ad break, not to speak about the commentators being early of 1-2 seconds during the voting, but they said it was not a problem of Rai). BUT let me tell you that this year Rai really put the effort covering the event also in daytime programming and in news programs, which is really a new thing for Italy and this is filling the gap in the heart of the viewers between Esc and Sanremo.

[@GiorgioNozzoli]

Also, for the first time Rai provided the sign language translations and interpretation of the songs of the grand final, plus audio description of all of the three nights. This doesn’t excuse the late joining but I really don’t understand the venomous (not the constructive critiques or the personal opinions, ofc!) comments that accompanied last year edition, and apparently even this year broadcast!

[@PascalBrax]

That's because this time there were 2 italian participants instead of one :D (Alessadra for Norway and Mengoni for Italy) quindi doppio impegno, lol.

[@GiorgioNozzoli]

@@PascalBrax technically three if we count Piqued Jacks for San Marino 😂

[@giovanniscg8540]

​@@GiorgioNozzoli sign language was present also last year on Rai Play as far as I know

[@GiorgioNozzoli]

@@giovanniscg8540 yes indeed, but last year was the year when we hosted the event, so imho we should take it out in any statistics and considerations as it was a sort of special case. Consider the tv ratings, for instance, or the channel on which the show was aired

[@Anton_Platonov]

I'd like to praise the BBC network team for the joining. The motion rhythm throughout the entire “BBC ident” - “black” - “fadein” - “EBU ident” sequence stays consistent. No hiccups, no jumps, no seams, only smooth and joyful perfection. Masterpiece!

[@VictorHahn]

Very easy for them being the host though :D

[@menofmayhemmm]

Well they’re global broadcasting channel that’s why

[@Aclkpo]

​​@@VictorHahnot really, BBC Pres didn't have special treatment and were receiving the programme through standard EBU lines. They didn't have a "special" feed or anything, it was the same as what any other broadcaster had

[@GeoNeilUK]

@@Aclkpo "BBC Pres didn't have special treatment and were receiving the programme through standard EBU lines. They didn't have a "special" feed or anything, it was the same as what any other broadcaster had" But the BBC were the ones feeding those standard EBU lines.

[@Aclkpo]

@@GeoNeilUK the lines went out the NEP OB truck that the BBC was using, same OB Truck used by RAI and AVROTROS in previous years. That went to the EBU, and was then distributed over the EBU'S fibre and satellite networks. BBC Pres at New Broadcasting House had access to the EBU network feed just like any other member

[@echarts3710]

Other countries: *Te Deum starts to play* Italy: What about buying Sky?

[@sochan1379]

Very Accurate lol

[@leap123_]

The fact that Rai 1 adds their own Eurovision ident just to cover up that they crashed to the ESC feed shows how much Italians really mess up anything.

[@Aclkpo]

I think they *had* to show the ident, probably an EBU requirement when joining a network programme

[@FernandsLiveShowShow]

A fabulous insight! Nice to see a graceful bow out by the BBC at the end, with a smooth fade out to black and then into the next trail almost as an exhale after a hectic few hours! And nice to use a time otherwise held up with a blue graphic to highlight the UK staff; something they've done natively at the end of broadcasts not always matching the graphics used for various reasons - so this is a nicely used opportunity here. And, again, with their grand BBC logo - a great source of pride regarding their rebrand - well timed into the ident. RAI... Allora! It'll be the full view on KZbin to see how the show actually began... Thanks for the compilation! Always enjoyed your continuity insight, this one's a gem!

[@martinborus9531]

When the BBC produces the event, they can do it properly. In previous years alas the sponsor messages appeared in the crawl shown while the winner was performing and often the BBC just left in mid-song.

[@CitronCassis]

On France 2, we had a 20min special show to present Liverpool (history, city, famous character with our beloved Stephan Bern, host of historical shows). He was also one of the host of Eurovision from Liverpool. No adds after 8:00pm, since it is a public channel.

[@JamieMurphy25]

Is Stéphane Bern the current presenter of the France 3 history series, 'Secrets d'Histoire'?

[@Monocrotophos]

​@@JamieMurphy25Yes probably

[@CitronCassis]

@@JamieMurphy25 yes he is ! He is also in « Laissez vous guider … » on France 2 with Lorant Dutch, another history show with reconstituted location on screen (Paris during the Middle Ages, Haussmann or France during the Gallo-romans). If you can, it is a must watch as well.

[@Epsyloone]

​@@CitronCassis it's still important to say, even though Stéphane Bern is a fun guy, that his show, and the one of Lorant Dutch, are full of inaccuracies, and focus more on the over glorification of historical figures (usually nobles and bourgeois...) rather than on actual history

[@CitronCassis]

@@Epsyloone I didn’t say « Laissez vous guider » was perfect but it is a very good for democratizing history, for reconstituted places with 3D and experiencing what was the life / cooking / building at one moment (the Romans, the Middle Ages etc). Look at what people say and believe on tweeter, some people lack history skills, and a good show with appealing images is a good vector for information. Secrets d’histoire is more detailed on one figure/character in history BUT it can also be less interesting for some people.

[@cruisingfanatic]

I used to work on local radio but the feed was too 30 radio stations seeing all the network join together brought back great memories, such a feat in broadcasting thanks for uploading

[@Ritermann]

BBC One had the best beginning. Right on time without the freezing frame in the beginning.

[@kryplus5471]

I'm glad that I watched the live broadcast on KZbin, on the Italian channel they sometimes did TV commercial breaks for example while the presenters were talking to the singers during the televoting. While on KZbin you can see everything without interruption and in a raw way, with a higher bitrate, the only downside is the latency of about 20-30 seconds.

[@donaloflynn]

No commentary though. I'd rather have ads than not get to hear Ireland's beloved commentator Marty Whelan. I didn't think of it for the first semi-final, but on the Thursday I just opened the EBU KZbin stream on my laptop and unmuted it while RTÉ showed ads.

[@Pavlinka__]

@@donaloflynn yeahhh if you have your favourite commentator, then its worth watching your broadcast. I tend to watch both? the livestream and my coutry's broadcast because I watch with my family and I don't want to miss the occasional commentator's jokes but also, he talks over the hosts, so I can't hear the real jokes sometimes. So I ended up watching it simultaneously lol.

[@michaelmcdonald2348]

We're fortunate in the UK that the show airs on the BBC with no commercial breaks, so we get 3 - 4 hours of pleasure.

[@JovanLemon]

I need more of these videos now. This is such an interesting concept. You could maybe do the semifinals or even add other channels. I would definitely like to see how other channels handled it, akd if any of them messed up

[@Manuel_Ottani]

The curious fact is that on the Italian Rai 2 (also Italy's second channel) both semi-finals arrived in time for the Eurovision feed. Curiously, the final on Rai 1 was overrun by almost 1 minute, but on the 'international feed' on RaiPlay (as they called it) they connected in time by 'ripping' the signal to Rai 1's simulcast (for ads)

[@RedMoreBlue]

Its actually quite difficult to time the start of a broadcast, since it would mean that everything during the day was on the schedule (including all lives). So lets say if your 6pm news goes over time about 5-10 seconds then that shifts the whole schedule. Yes you can probably delete some unnecessary stuff from the schedule (promos, ect) but sometimes you have nothing to delete. And sometimes they might end their news early which in turn means adding fillers (if any are available). My experience comes from doing WRC rally broadcast. With the Eurovision EBU world feed they have it easy, if you tune in a 1-2 seconds earlier than the start you have the first frame of the intro already on screen, but for WRC they just have a black frame. So I usually have to put the first frame of the WRC intro on air from my side and then as soon as the feed begins, switch over to that. In addition it is worth noting that sometimes (depends on how you get the feed) there might be a small delay on the world feed as well (0,5-1,5 seconds). So in the end its very important to NOT go over time during live segments :D and factor in any delays in the incoming feed. But the italians did seem to mess up a bit. But then again they kinda saved themselves since they played the intro from their side and then went onto the world feed. All things concidered, I love working in television.

[@MePeterNicholls]

The jury connections are a feat too. I’ve done radio where we had to go to different people on the route of the Olympic torch in 2012, with only mobile phones and Skype. That half hour went by in a blur as I cued and queued 😳

[@marcusmyge]

They used to be very problematic and had to try again later if they couldn't reach one.

[@JamieMurphy25]

Bare in mind ARD's main station do air very limited commercials during daytime hours, Monday to Saturday (not including bank holidays and Sundays), but not allowed after 8pm (when their flagship 8pm news cast goes on the air).

[@BasicMasterReloaded]

The first semi-final on ARD's station ONE actually didn't cover the sponsors in the credits; this apparently has been a mistake.

[@maxmusic5380]

But Barbara didn’t give points but host this

[@1997Banane]

@@maxmusic5380 Ja, wieso eigentlich?

[@TheInfi]

@@1997Banane Barbara hat die pre- und after-show aus Liverpool moderiert, und die Punkte müssen laut Regeln aus einem Studio in Deutschland vergeben werden

[@minkintn]

Nice compilation as always. Things were quite uneventful here in Finland. Yle (the broadcaster) was showing a montage of upcoming shows for about 2 minutes on loop, so they were ready for the switchover.

[@donaloflynn]

That seems quite a lazy way of approaching it. Backtiming isn't difficult. It's a fundamental of live broadcasting!

[@minkintn]

@@donaloflynn They cut from the ads to their own ident, and then the Eurovision ident pretty much on the dot. I'm not that experienced in this, so they could be backtiming and I wouldn't know.

[@donaloflynn]

@@minkintn Playing something on a loop that they can cut away from at any time is lazier than scheduling ads and idents so that the last one will end at precisely the right time, which in this case is 59:59. That’s all backtiming is, counting back from the hour to the end of the previous programme and filling the intervening period. A really simple example is that at three minutes to the hour a radio DJ should play a song that’s three minutes long, not 2:45 or 3:10.

[@myslithecat]

@@donaloflynn It's a non commercial channel, they never have ads. Only things they show in between shows are their own promotions for future programs and that's what they did. I don't remember it being a loop. Previous show ended and there was couple of watch this show next thursday promos like usual, not same ones shown again and again.

[@donaloflynn]

@@myslithecat You called it a loop in your first comment. Never mind.

[@cgfischer]

that's truly interesting. During one of the shows I noticed that the SBS One broadcast seemed to have some large delay of at least 30 seconds but during a ad break they somehow managed to get back in sync with the others. I noticed that because some friends in a Telegram group were already talking about stuff that I haven't even seen yet on my own.

[@MarkPentler]

This is a hugely interesting tidbit - I wonder if they were taking the odd frame out or something to regain the time. Did they join late and had to play it timeshifted, etc

[@donaloflynn]

@@MarkPentler Easy enough with the right technology in their playout gallery. Assuming they were late for the beginning they would just have had to timeshift the feed until the first break, then drop something from their planned ad break so they could take the feed live after it.

[@marquee_tags]

That's how you *should* handle running late :) I can also imagine SBS doing it on purpose for a number of reasons. They're on the other side of the world and it's way too early in the morning.

[@szoszk]

Australia being on the other side of the world will inevitably have some kind of delay due to the distance

[@donaloflynn]

@@szoszk Very little these days.

[@adamwest4981]

It would be interesting to see a similar video of the advert breaks during the show. I imagine that a few of them messed that up too.

[@Leenapanther]

I missed that drag queen performance in the first semi final because of the commercials (Switzerland). For the final, after all the songs, I switched to the german channel. No commercial breaks there I noticed how cheap it is in germany to vote 0.14 cents for a call and 0.20 cents for a SMS. In Switzerland you pay 1.20 swiss francs. I always thought voting 20 times is excessive and expensive. But with German prices go for it.

[@Rayze64]

@@Leenapanther yeah about the cost to vote.. we pay 1.70€ in estonia..

[@SuperStreetWarrior]

@@Leenapanther I personally skipped drag queen performance and waited when it was over.

[@marsh2741]

@@Leenapanther woah that is interesting with the prices, it was 0.45 cents for SMS here in the Netherlands

[@DitzyNizzy2009]

@@Rayze64 - Wow, that's pretty expensive. Mind you, I'm used to voting being cheap, as it's only 15p (about 17c) in the United Kingdom.

[@SuperBloxTube]

Even though I don’t watch Eurovision, transitions like this are fascinating. The best one imo is the BBC’s. That transition was *chef’s kiss.* The worst one is… do I really need to say it? (It is Rai 1, sorry Italians).

[@bluepineapples7818]

Also something I noticed when watching the French broadcast is that unlike the BBC, they don't bother to hide the voting numbers and display a message about not voting for your own country when their own song appears in the recap

[@xir.a]

Il faut savoir qu’il n’y a pas que les français de métropole qui regarde France 2. Les programmes de France 2 sont aussi diffusés pour la francophonie sur France 24 ;)

[@bluepineapples7818]

@@xir.a Les numéros sont différents pour chaque pays, donc les numéros diffusés sur France 2 ne marcheront qu'en France. Soit un pays francophone a sa propre chaîne qui diffuse le concours et donc ses propres numéros pour voter (la Belgique et la Suisse), soit il ne participe pas au concours et donc n'a pas le droit de voter. Et si quelqu'un qui habite dans un département d'outre-mer appelle le numéro français pour voter pour la France, le vote ne sera pas compté, tout comme il ne serait pas compté si la personne habitait en France métropolitaine.

[@xir.a]

@@bluepineapples7818 Ok je vois c’est logique en effet mais j’aurais penser que du fait que France 2 est diffusé aussi sur France 24, cela expliquait cela. Ou alors il on juste eu la flemme 💀

[@vonlowe7187]

​@@xir.a ...mais c'est la même chose le Royaume-Uni. Il y a des autre pays qui peuvent regarder BBC aussi

[@bluepineapples7818]

In the past the Eurovision credits were harder to cover up, so the BBC used to have to play the closing ident early before the sponsor logos appeared

[@adhillA97]

Oh, is that why they would sometimes cut the winning song off early? I always thought it was just sloppiness on the host's part with regard to timing - that makes so much sense!

[@MiddayDolomite]

While I acknowledge the BBC would never feature trailers for their commercial partners, I'm surprised they still had to cover up those logos. As they only flashed up for a few seconds, it didn't seem like undue prominence.

[@BBC600]

@@MiddayDolomite Plus despite the fact they paid for the spot to be in the credits the companies ought to get credit for making their contributions for the show to happen. Where else would the money come from?

[@adhillA97]

​@@MiddayDolomite They're not allowed to promote or appear to support any commercial product of any sort. Including the singles of the songs they send to Eurovision...

[@adhillA97]

​@@BBC600 The deal will have been made with the understanding that certain channels couldn't show the promotional content, and the sponsorship payments would reflect that. The BBC is generally very well funded in any case. Interestingly, the BBC also had to block out the Moroccanoil logo on the intermission transition screen. If you look very carefully at the BBC broadcast, you can see a subtle blue box appearing during the transition to cover it up.

[@heybeuz]

As an Italian, I had that feeling… 😂

[@Popidge]

I'd love to know how much an effect being the "host" broadcaster has on this. I noticed the BBC backtiming was effectively perfect, going from BBC ident to the start of the Eurovision ident, exactly on 20:00:00 (as a former BBC bod, a bit of pride there!), whilst the rest that hit the ident had a second or two of the blue screen before the eurovision anthem plays. Was this because the overall control of the brodcast was actually handled by the BBC, or were they just that much slicker on the backtiming? Also interesting, Rai seemingly having to play a locally triggered version of the Eurovision ident because they'd crashed the feed but still had to play it in full. Lined up nice with the visual transition from khaluush cold open to the shot of europe from space. Either that's fully planned ahead or they had the standalone Eurovision ident queued up just in case of a crash, either way well-planned.

[@donaloflynn]

I doubt the BBC were controlling the broadcast. I suspect they just made extra sure to have things perfect in the knowledge that their EBU-member counterparts, their domestic competitors and broadcasting nerds like us would be watching their output and they wanted to keep up the BBC's great international reputation. From what I've read about Rai, I suspect they're so used to messing up that they've become expert at trying to mitigate their blunders and thus had the ident queued up locally in case of this very eventuality. If only they could put the same effort into not messing up in the first place! The slick transition will have been a pure fluke. RTÉ crashed the feed two thirds of the way through the ident, which in my opinion is worse than what happened on Rai. There's no excuse for messing up backtiming precisely to the top of the hour, but at least Rai were prepared to still maintain the Eurovision's iconic opening despite doing so.

[@linmanfu913]

@donalflynn I don't know about now, but in the 2000s the BBC handled the main ESC satellite feed every year because it was such a complex operation. I remember it being discussed in a programme about the ESC.

[@railotaku]

@@linmanfu913 Yes, when they say the BBC is one of the biggest contributors to Eurovision, a lot of that is technical rather than financial

[@_Madfly]

I wouldn't say it makes a difference. All the stations knew exactly what time the broadcast was starting so they all had the same opportunity to line up their schedules to match it. Perhaps the other stations don't just have as much experience of exactly timed broadcasts. For example, BBC news bulletins pretty much always start exactly on the hour, so this is something the BBC is used to doing. Maybe these other stations don't have that? I'm not sure.

[@samomuransky4455]

I don't think BBC being the host broadcaster has any effect on this. It's not like they can push the ident few seconds early or late to match their broadcast. It has to begin punctually at 21:00:00 (20:00:00 GMT). Better backtiming job is the answer.

[@Salisbury2015]

This was pretty fun to watch. Thanks for uploading.

[@ganapatikamesh]

Oooh! This was interesting to see. Where I was at watching here in the US we had Peacock’s regular version playing on the tv and the Live with Johnny Weir on my phone. The Live with Johnny Weir started way before the start of the show and had Johnny in the studio greeting the tv audience and talking a little bit about Eurovision for viewers new to the show. He even got to explain a bit about how there’d be an opening video before we join the arena in Liverpool. The feed for the live show with Johnny just had a screen that said “Stream Will Start Soon”. About the time Johnny was saying we would be going to the arena soon the feed on the tv switched and we saw what was your global feed in this video. Eventually as the Morracanoil ad began both broadcasts began at the same time so I turned down the volume on my phone. The only difference from that point forward was that the parts where there’s “breaks” in the show and the presenters are talking, etc, the Live with Johnny version would go back to full screen to the studio with Johnny. He was eventually joined by Alexander Rybak, who apparently is friends with Johnny and Johnny wrote to ask him to join and they chatted briefly before it went to another song. During the interval part with voting, while the main show showed all 26 songs clips 3 times, the Live with Johnny skipped the 2nd one and Rybak performed his winning song Fairytale. After that the feed went back to the arena for the Liverpool Songbook and final showing of the clips from all 26 songs. Then as the countdown to stop voting was about to happen they went to a side by side with the show in a big box on the left and Johnny in a tiny box on the right. The without Johnny was basically whatever was being fed, no commentary. The with Johnny had Johnny’s commentary during the voting sequence, though he didn’t say too much other than provide context about what was happening for folks watching who were new to the contest. Honestly for folks new to it, Johnny does a great job of explaining things and he’s a big Eurovision fan so as a fan it’s like enjoying the show with him. However, I found myself paying more attention to the tv than my phone during the voting segment and my family and I were mostly talking over both during the jury vote segment. Funnily, when Greece’s jury spokesperson came on my niece actually said outloud that they weren’t giving Cyprus the 12 points right before Johnny noticed. Then Johnny explained to viewers at home how that seemed almost like an expected tradition in Eurovision. Which is literally what I had just said to my mom (who was watching for the first time). It was fun! Thanks for compiling this and makimg this video. I’ll admit to being curious about this kind of stuff. I’m glad someone else is also and went the extra step of finding out, making a video, and sharing it. Thank you!

[@JoeBleasdaleReal]

UK: *LIVE* France: *LIVE* Germany: *LIVE* Switzerland: *LIVE* Austria: *LIVE* Italy: Allora…

[@ArtiomWin]

Nice multiview. Another note: RTE One hadn't joined network in time, but they were just 10 seconds late. As for ending, it wasn't recorded.

[@Electrex8]

Yep, watched this live. They were running an ad for MoroccanOil until the end of the Eurovision titles.

[@donaloflynn]

​@@Electrex8 I just watched it on the RTÉ Player as I watched the final on BBC One. Not broadcasting the Eurovison ident in full is shameful! Having missed the start of it on the world feed they really should have played it locally like the Italians did. I think most viewers would prefer to miss some of the opening titles than miss out on hearing the iconic excerpt from the Te Deum Prelude. It's just not right to start without it! I'm in Ireland and I'm a huge fan of RTÉ's commentator Marty Whelan but I tuned to the BBC for the final to hear Graham and Mel on commentary. It was a shame that Graham didn't have time to give his audience a little background on Dustin when he popped up with Hannah in the semi-finals recap. He's not just a character developed for one of Ireland's worst every entries, he was an integral part of my childhood. It was so much fun to see him taking part again!

[@changein3d]

I absolutely love the complete absence of ads at Das Erste (main german TV station)

[@itjustmeLam]

Well, not really though. There are adverts during daytime, but it is very limited (20 minutes per day). Once the flagship 8pm Tagesschau airs, no ads are shown though out the night (also no adverts during Sunday and bank holidays)

[@PhirePhlame]

Here in the US, the Song Contest was show on Peacock TV, a streaming service run by NBC (a Eurovision affiliate member, though for obvious not a full member). We had our own feed commentated by a very flamboyant guy, he was adorable.

[@jamesmt142]

Can I just come back to this and appreciate SRF Eins' idents? They're beautiful.

[@astergios8659]

I want another version with more stations since I loved it

[@bobtahoma]

This is such a fundamental basic of broadcast television. The fact that RAI screwed this up so badly just goes to show how sloppy the operation on their part was that night. It’s not like they had to listen to an international count to bring them on air at an unusual Co-ordinated time. It was literally the top of the hour to the second. So, so poor.

[@intersezioni]

Listen, Italy does what it wants, it doesn't have to account to you since the second funder of the EBU is the largest audience in Europe as public TV!

[@bobtahoma]

@@intersezioni Of course you can do what you want. If what you want is to screw up and sloppily miss the first 42 seconds of the broadcast and look like an amateur broadcaster, then you nailing that baby!

[@paole9729]

​@@intersezioni RAI can do what they want, but the watchers still need to pay for their TV service and miss things!? Also, watchers have to deal with advert breaks, but Eurovision shows don't have interruptions.

[@MarkPentler]

Sorry but Bob's right. Back timing is a fundamental broadcasting skill, on tv or radio

[@RonKan69]

I wouldn't say it's a fundamental basic. A lot of work and personnel goes into making sure they start on time and that they broadcast the whole show correctly, and sometimes mistakes can happen.

[@kbhasi]

Ooh, that's awesome to see that you were able to show how different channels in different countries synced up! It reminds me of when some pay TV channels would have ‘direct via satellite’ broadcasts of certain US contest TV programmes. No channel where I live broadcasts ESC, but I didn't know there was an official KZbin stream until I read the comments (assuming the stream isn't restricted to certain countries)! Edit 10 months later: I wonder if you'll do one for 2024, possibly by working with members of the unofficial Eurovision Discord community to have members DVR record channels for you that you could then sync up.

[@itsmarcooooo]

Would love to see how Australia’s broadcast handled it!

[@OmnoWombo]

This is actually really cool to see how it works. I love the terminology for different segments.

[@gustavohernandeza.890]

Cool. Still miss the old static EUROVISION intro tho...

[@schnitzelsemmel]

ORF joined to the ARD/SRF aftershow as well, just after another few minutes of ads...

[@tevebits]

It wasn't even proper adverts that they absolutely had to show for financial reasons. Instead, they ran 1 minute and 20 seconds of random promos for some other ORF programmes. So, a self-inflicted problem made them join the aftershow late. Why did they run the promos in the first place? It's quite bizarre.

[@donaloflynn]

@@tevebits Attempting to boost the viewership of the shows in the promos was probably more important to management than joining an unimportant show that they weren't even producing in a timely manner.

[@jamesmt142]

Was the facility not there to timeshift the aftershow for the other German speaking networks? Or could Das Erste not have provided an appropriate window for ORF Eins & SRF Eins, similar to the ad break windows on the world feed?

[@donaloflynn]

@@jamesmt142 Probably more hassle than it was worth. A case of if you want to take our feed you can take it as is.

[@madenaraputra6887]

All commercial broadcasting should be joined in EBU, UEFA, and Eurovision for broadcast of all programmes in commercial broadcasting in the country. If public broadcasting in each country doesn't have any programme, especially of Eurovision Song Contest, the commercial broadcasting should be broadcast of Eurovision programme.

[@sergeantnet]

Austria: We'll play MoroccanOil, then the board, screw you Booking! France/Switzerland: Oui, oui, that's great timing! Germany/UK: We don't have sponsors, but we have cool animations! Italy: *MAMMA MIA, WE'RE LATE!* 😂

[@gentuxable]

BBC had the best timing but it was easy because that animation could've been interrupted whenever you want, but still you'd never notice a switch SRF was timed right with the Morocanoil ad closing at .59 that was harder but well accomplished, Austria, France and Germany were quite ahead and the showed the frozen blue screen for 2 to 3 seconds. Rai was like " ey Antonio wasn't that Eurovision thing happening tonight?"

[@jcampton1]

In Germany, Their last few minutes before joining Eurovision was spent on a live preshow from Liverpool before making way for "Das Wort zum Sonntag", a traditional commentary segment which has aired every Saturday night since 1954 based around religion and reflection. (Cue pastor speaking in front of a wall of guitars)

[@TheRavenir]

I know you were just joking around, but the Swiss channel shown here (SRF 1) is actually the Swiss German TV channel. The Swiss French one would be RTS 1. You can tell by how the SRF cut to the same after-show as the German broadcaster (Das Erste) as well, since they speak the same language.

[@Bastbra]

Rai 1 HD be like: "Okay, we MUST display this ad right now"

[@GiorgioNozzoli]

Considering that the full participation fee was covered by adverts, yes, they had to

[@Bastbra]

@@GiorgioNozzoli Yeah, I meant they MUST have done this "right now" - they could have played it all before without missing the start, yk?

[@GiorgioNozzoli]

@@Bastbra yeah, no, your comment sounded like “why they didn’t just skip the ad?” and I actually answered to this with a fun fact (at least an interesting fact for all of us crazy people that like to know this side of tv and media!). But yeah ofc they should have timed it way better, no excuses on this

[@Bastbra]

@@GiorgioNozzoli Then I was a bit misunderstanding, sorry for that. Just wanted to make a joke based on what I said.

[@GiorgioNozzoli]

@@Bastbra don’t worry, you’re joke is fine per se, but in the context of some other toxic comments that are here under this video I probably read yours as more serious than it was meant to be!

[@digitaldav1d]

My friends were wondering if the BBC timing was so perfect because the live continuity is more a BBC thing than other countries, where it would be more likely pre-recorded?

[@FrancescoRosi27]

God I sure do love Italian TV

[@schnow265]

Me in my room: I watch it on YT, so that I don’t have ads. My mother: we also don’t have ads on the livestream on ORF1 My mother one minute later: okay we have ads

[@lexezlao]

this makes me wish my country would broadcast eurovision

[@BLFprincipal]

It is very interesting to see how several staions are joining the Eurovision broadcast. It is understood that the majority of European public television broadcast commercial advertising.

[@dpf2122]

This is fascinating. Thanks for putting it together.

[@shodan2958]

Those BBC credits were actually really clean, unless you've seen this video or someone told you. You would've never guessed something was amiss.

[@vald0506]

Love these multi views!

[@icydragon68]

We need MORE multiviewer videos!

[@spiele_maus]

In Germany It also aired on „One“, (in addition to „Das Erste“ shown in the video) And they also messed up the beginning. They didn’t show the „Eurovision“ intro/logo to make up the time they lost due to their fault. And still they missed a few seconds.

[@tenny_tenten]

Supposedly, Eurovision would have a version of its opening ident with a background changing to a green background, however it didn't being aired sadly

[@mrglados1556]

thank you tom scott

[@cironovanta90]

in Italy we are like trains, they always arrive late LOL

[@DerekPK]

Not in Finland 🇫🇮

[@TheLimeyDragon]

again please! (but with more broadcasters if possible)

[@EllySensei]

I love how the BBC-specific feed makes their own credit graphic to: A. Avoid the sponsor spots B. Highlight the UK-spot They have the power since they have the control room, but still.

[@AgentSquash]

They do it every year!

[@tevebits]

There's no special power involved ;-) The world feed is always provided by the EBU, not the host broadcaster. So the BBC got the signal off the Eurovision network like anybody else (via satellite and/or the EBU’s FINE fibre network). They just did a very good job covering up the bits they didn't want their audience to see.

[@LA90598]

​@@tevebits they also did in incredible job at hosting, the quality was outstanding

[@EllySensei]

​​@@tevebits by that I really meant the BBC run the production control room. They are this year's broadcaster after all. I assume the host broadcaster along with the EBU sends the signal to the satellite then, with how you implied it, Master Control takes the feed from the network.

[@unicodefox]

@@tevebits Yeah, BBC's cover up was much cleaner than DE's. On DE it gets a bit fuzzy near the bottom and has a much harsher gradient

[@samuelpostiglione9306]

Also, in Italy we didn't see Iceland giving jury points because there were... ads :I

[@sobreneybresil9574]

Thanks for this multiplex. 😇 How did you manage to capture all this channels?

[@oscarwarne4221]

Would be cool to see Australia in this

[@no1fanofthepals]

this was very interesting

[@thomasmarama1]

Merci c'était super interessant !

[@hand587]

Love this content! I am interested in seeing how the opt outs for advertising breaks works too. Also, I wonder how localised versions of the feeds are produced in the gallery. Are the differences e.g. in credits automated in the originating gallery, or is that something overlayed at the country broadcaster level?

[@jelletempelman1632]

Wait… there are commercial breaks in other countries? Like… the show is stoped and an advertisement reel will run? How is that covered up in the other countries. In the Netherlands there are no advertisement breaks.

[@thijmendevalk]

​@@jelletempelman1632 Those are the moments in the show they talk to commentators, hang in the green room, do a comedy bit, that kind of stuff. It's bookended by title graphics and a very brief moment where the audio goes completely silent. But I have to say it's done pretty smoothly for us 'non ad' countries. You have to know what to look for to even see it.

[@JamieMurphy25]

@@jelletempelman1632 BBC's domestic services don't run commercial breaks at all, same for DR in Denmark and SVT from Sweden.

[@donaloflynn]

@@jelletempelman1632 Why do you think there are fairly pointless interviews after every few songs? Those are only there so that there's time for the semi-commercial public broadcasters like RTÉ here in Ireland to opt out for their ad breaks and opt back in just before the next performance.

[@donaloflynn]

Anything broadcasters show that differs from the world feed would be added in that broadcaster's playout gallery, no different to how the commentary audio is handled. Only one video feed is sent out from the venue. Separate to that a commentary feed for each country is sent out and mixed with the world feed at broadcaster level. For example, I noticed that when the Ukrainian commentator Timor was interviewed in his booth, he had a camera as well as a microphone. Perhaps that was just for social media content, but it's possible that UA the Ukrainian broadcaster showed him in vision at times. For the localised BBC credits shown here, they would just have put a still of the blank credits background up and their own text over that. Think of layers like in Photoshop or a video editing package. Here's a different example illustrating how broadcasters taking a feed can supplement it with live pictures from one of their own cameras: When Joe Biden visited Belfast recently a "pool feed" of his speech was provided to any broadcaster who wanted it. I live in Ireland and I watched it on two different screens. One was tuned to RTÉ One and the other to BBC One Northern Ireland. When Biden made reference to some people in the audience, the pool feed cameras didn't manage to get shots of them and so RTÉ viewers didn't get to see them. However, BBC Northern Ireland had their political editor in the room with his own live camera broadcasting directly back to the studio across the city at Broadcasting House as part of a news special. BBC NI's camera operator got the right crowd shots so his gallery cut to those while continuing to use the audio from the pool feed. I don't know if BBC News in London had the foresight to monitor the BBC One NI feed in their gallery (I didn't have a third screen available!), but if they did then millions of viewers may have gotten better visuals as a result. (Beyond this point I went way off topic, but I feel that some people here might be interested.) The whole news special from Belfast for Northern Irish viewers was a masterclass in broadcasting, far superior to national and international output I've seen from the BBC. For political reasons, news broadcasts are very important in NI and the local BBC operation excels at them. RTÉ's coverage was actually very poor. Firstly as Ireland's public broadcaster covering Biden's visit to the island of Ireland they should have fought to get their Northern Editor in the room with a live camera alongside his BBC counterpart. Secondly, they came on air with their news special twenty minutes later than necessary and as a result managed to miss Joe Kennedy's speech ahead of Biden entirely. Thirdly, because they'd started too late, their co-presenter outside the university said things that had already happened were only just about to happen, in a lame attempt to cover the ineptitude of the schedulers. I'm so glad I decided to see how the Belfast-based BBC programme covered the event.

[@ardanriver]

Amazing work of compilation the broadcast

[@stevew3278]

With today's technology I'm sure TV stations have the same luxury as us viewers do on our TV receivers. A thing called Time-Shifting. If a regional station misses the cue then just hold the start of the broadcast until they are ready to join to it then play-in like nothing happened. Delays can then be sorted out later on. I'm sure modern editing suites can "live edit" during the show to cut and eventually catch up to live transmission.

[@tevebits]

While it is enitrely possible in a technical sense, it would be a very bad idea for such a big live event like the Song Contest. There's a lot of social media buzz, live discussion and of course the voting. Can't have a whole country lagging behind. I'm quite certain the EBU doesn't allow local delays on this huge broadcast.

[@stevew3278]

Yes you're probably right with Eurovision considering the interaction etc, people may notice if the lag is too long!

[@TVI.GEEAI.GD4.0IBK120]

Fun fact: did you know that the ident of the eurovision audio is the world cup 1966?

[@linuxducky]

Interesting how Das Erste can't show sponsors so removed BBC logo from the end credits but didn't remove BBC from the start 😅 not sure if a blunder, but I guess they're likely okay to show it since it's a production logo of host coutries channel than a sponsor.

[@MarkPentler]

Where was this? I can't see it

[@linuxducky]

@@MarkPentler 0:48 start of ESC with BBC logo on Das Erste, 1:30 end credits with BBC logo (all logos including BBC removed for Das Erste)

[@donaloflynn]

@@linuxducky They wouldn't have any problem showing the logo of the host broadcaster, in fact they're likely obliged to show it as its inclusion at the beginning will have been agreed to by the EBU. They only removed it from the end credits because keeping it on screen while hiding the other logos on screen would be pointlessly complicated. Note the Das Erste had a crude still covering more of the screen than the logos took up, but the BBC's method (probably also superimposing a still) covered as little as necessary.

[@linuxducky]

@RobtheMod Yes possibly, or maybe overly cautious. I can't imagine why any of these need to be removed as they're not sponsors but production and UK arts funding. I guess we'll never know but a very interesting discrepancy!

[@kryplus5471]

I love the Eurovision opening music

[@uenoe233tatrkbussid]

Rai Engineers be like: Oi! You forgotto the eurovision!

[@andremp03]

RAI really said 'what's a clock?'

[@giovanniscg8540]

For 42 seconds in which nothing relevant occurred?

[@TilmanBaumann]

Did anyone else notice that ARD Germany didn't show show the sponsor logos in the outro?

[@gentuxable]

This is normal ARD isn't allowed to show ads at certain times.

[@TVClipsDeutschland]

Can you please do what they did at the ad breaks? (Especially BBC and Das Erste)

[@tevebits]

Already done: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oXXdiJuEepmFrLM - Subscribe to the channel to get notified ;-) - BBC and Das Erste don't have ad breaks, however, so they just stayed with the World Feed.

[@ClarkDroneFilms]

Brilliantly made video

[@MF88_]

ORF1 was really early

[@scottchristie6734]

It's interesting to see the Sponsors of the event missing from the credits and intro because BBC aren't a commercial network so can't air adverts or sponsors.

[@AlKusmantoro]

And neither is Das Erste in Germany.

[@stevenhumphreys1709]

I'd have thought the EBU ident would have come from the World feed directly, and not seemingly manually added on as was the case with RAI. They must've known they were going to be late so they could cue it for when the network was ready.

[@MAKSPLUS]

I think that probably every broadcaster has its own copy of EBU ident to opt out in case of crashing to the broadcast or smth

[@linmanfu913]

They would need to have it for when they are sending out Eurovision programmes. (In the Anglosphere the Song Contests are the only such programmes but on the Continent there are more, so I wouldn't be surprised if RAI regularly shares shows with TSI).

[@Razorgirl]

Awww! You didn’t include things like Australia’s SBS putting ads over host content. SBS also broadcast Mel Giedroyc dressed as a Polish Milkmaid during their live broadcast, but cut the footage from the delayed broadcast later that day. #prudes

[@tevebits]

I would love to show the Australian perspective. If you have a recording, I'm here :-)

[@emmybm15]

Love these sorts of videos ❤ Oh gosh Rai why!? 😅

[@jesusitoelgamer6320]

WOW! I'm so impressed with the quality of the opt-in and opt-out phases in this case. A (simple) question: How do you got all the signals including the World Feed and how I search them? Thanks.

[@anteeklund4159]

Were used to this after last year’s show

[@wbblelebbw9678]

RAI joined exactly as the Globe graphic started - is that an amazing coincidence? Would the national broadcasters be given enough information that RAI planned this all along? If I was watching in Italy I wouldn’t have noticed, as it didn’t start half way through something.

[@tevebits]

The broadcasters typically know exactly what to expect, since there are rehearsals which are fed to them. Member stations also get a detailled running order of the show. Even so, I don't think it was very smooth here. Rai cut right to the last few frames before the globe transition, so the switch wasn't clean at all. Should have waited half a second more ;-)

[@igorsiuda8108]

Answering for question, Italy's RAI messed up the Eurovision.

[@TheRealOzelo]

Hey, is there a way for you to tell me when the VRT (Belgium, Flemish) joined the party?

[@Blau9]

Muttertag…ich lieb diesen Film

[@MaxMustermannXXL]

would be interesting how that video was made. for example where did you have the exact time from and where did you get the world feed from?

[@kanaljeneriklerivereklamku8694]

I Watched Eurovision Song Contest On Ictimai TV From Azerbaijan With Azeri Commentators, But It Was Sponsored By Moroccan Oil. Fact: Ictimai TV Still Airs Eurovision Song Contest Since 2007, Because Our Public Broadcaster TRT Is Not Airing ESC For The Foreseeable Future. Also, Both Turkey And Azerbaijan Are Brother Countries Too.

[@georgejeaton]

That’s so cool. I’m the best Eurovision fan.

[@riccardoambrosi7461]

I would love to get the same analysis for 2024 edition✌🏻

[@pencilled_robin]

Very cool!

[@timrutten5990]

Every channel: MOROCCANOIL! bbc one: GLASTONBURY!!!

[@Torontoball]

actually, I watched this whole video

[@computersmarty11]

BBC One Scotland (Separate Scottish Continuity) joined the main Eurovision ident a few seconds late after showing the BBC Netflix style ident. Wonder if Wales or Northern Ireland had similar issue?

[@ChristopherWoods]

BBC One Scotland was tight to the start of the EBU ident after the new BBC ident, they mixed through black to the start of the EBU ident and faded the BBC ident out beforehand. There was a weird audio glitch right at the start of the EBU ident, almost like a source switch, but they didn't crash it. BBC One NI was also tight to the EBU ident, they mixed through the colours at the end of the BBC ident into the start of the EBU ident and crossfaded audio. Looked very nice on TV, probably the best effort overall. BBC One Wales was also OK - faded out audio on the BBC ident a touch early and mixed through black - overall a little eager on the fade, but it was clean. Their transition through BBC ident to start of world feed seemed basically identical to BBC One HD pres.

[@tevebits]

Thank you, Christopher! Great recap

[@rezaalan3991]

Nice. Even though Italy is bit late joining the rest, but they made it.

[@tadesubaru1383]

Everyone, point and laugh at those ad fails

[@agustingomez1590]

Menos mal que no ví el festival desde la Rai. Aunque debo reconocer que TVE también se tardó unos segundos en poner al aire los shows.

[@mariobot128]

hey, how did you obtain all of these different POVs from the different broadcasters, i can't find them anywhere online