Eurovision 2016 budget and potentially earlier show time
SVT revealed that a maximum of 125 million Swedish krona will be spent on television production of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.
Sweden’s broadcaster confirmed the 2016 contest will be achieved within the same framework used for Eurovision 2013 in Malmö. The total contribution of the city of Stockholm to the contest remains unclear but the city has already put forward 60 million SEK this year.
Taken together, that means roughly €20 million has been put aside for the event thus far. That figure is less than half the final cost of Eurovision 2014 in Copenhagen and only a third of the amount spent by Azerbaijan hosting the 2012 contest in Crystal Hall in Baku.
Among the preliminary costs so far, around a total of 50 million SEK (€5.3m) will reportedly go towards the renovations of the Globen Arena, the host venue which will be in use for a total of six weeks for the Eurovision Song Contest, running from the 4 April to the 14 May. Among the list of renovations being made to the arena include the installation of public WiFi, an update of the interior design and a freshen-up of the arena itself. The same report also reveals that a budget of 10 million SEK (€1m) has been put towards the initial preparations for this year in the lead up to the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.
The last time Sweden hosted the Eurovision Song Contest was in 2013 with the total costs of the event in the city of Malmö coming to around 125 million SEK (€13.3m). However according to the 2016 Contest Producer Christer Björkman, next year’s Stockholm event does not have to be as expensive.
The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest will take place in the host city of Stockholm on the 10, 12 and 14 May at the Globen Arena. So far, a total of 19 countries have confirmed their intent to compete at next year’s competition.
Furthermore, The Swedish and host national broadcaster of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, SVT, is reportedly set to issue a proposal to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) regarding a change of time slot for each of the 2016 Eurovision shows.
SVT will put forward a new proposal to the EBU in order to change the time slot of the future Eurovision Song Contest events. This means that instead of the traditional 21:00 CET starting hour, each Eurovision show including the two semi-finals and the Grand Final would begin at 20:00 CET.
