The EBU has updated Eurovision voting rules, reducing the number of votes for viewers and introducing stricter restrictions. This happened after controversies related to public support for Israeli participants.
The European Broadcasting Union has announced a major overhaul of the Eurovision voting rules following a wave of controversy related to the sharp divergence between the jury's verdict and the strong public support for Israeli participants. This was reported by Euractiv, writes UNN.
Details
The EBU announced that starting next year, each viewer will be able to cast half as many votes – 10 instead of 20 – and stricter advertising restrictions and measures to detect "coordinated or fraudulent voting activity" will be introduced. This step is intended to strengthen transparency after several countries threatened to boycott the contest if Israel was allowed to participate again.
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A number of states, including Spain, Ireland, and the Netherlands, protested the situation in Gaza, and the Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS accused Israel of "proven interference… during the last Song Contest" and "serious violation of press freedom."
We listened to you and acted… The contest must remain a neutral space and should not be instrumentalized
– said Eurovision Director Martin Green.
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The EBU explained that the new measures are intended to reduce the imbalance that allowed Israeli participants to sharply rise in the final ranking due to massive audience voting – as happened with Eden Golan in 2024 and Yuval Raphael in 2025.
The vote on Israel's participation in the contest in Vienna has been postponed for now: EBU members will first assess whether the new rules are sufficient.
We very much hope that the package of measures will reassure the members of the organization that we have taken decisive steps to protect the neutrality and impartiality of the song contest in the future
– emphasized organization spokesman Dave Goodman.
The list of participants for the next Eurovision is expected to be announced before Christmas.
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