When it comes to Australia in Eurovision, or Junior Eurovision, it’s always an uncertainty, but we’ve been invited back for the third time to Junior Eurovision, with this year’s contest being held in Tbilisi in Georgia. Interestingly, the broadcast here in Australia is being moved to another channel, from SBS to ABC!
For the first time, the Junior Eurovision broadcast will be done on ABC ME, which is Australia’s leading broadcast and online TV service for school aged children and their families. Discussions between ABC, SBS (the broadcaster normally broadcasting Eurovision and Junior Eurovision) and the European Broadcasting Union, it was decided that SBS would hand over the Junior Eurovision duties to ABC ME due to it being a more family and kid friendly type of channel, which is the target audience of Junior Eurovision – thus, maximising the reach. SBS will continue to host the Eurovision Song Contest.
The Australian hosts of the competition include ABC ME’s popular host Grace Koh, who will be in Tbilisi for the competition, providing updates for fans daily. For the broadcast, she will be joined by Pip Rasmussen and Tim Matthews, who will be a part of the broadcast which is set to take place on Monday the 27th of November at 19:30.
Members at ABC and SBS have commented on the change in broadcaster, including Marshall Heald, the SBS Director of Television and Online Content, who has said, ‘The Junior Eurovision Song Contest has been growing its following among passionate Eurovision fans since SBS first broadcast the event in 2014. This is now a great opportunity to reach a youth and children’s audience not available on SBS, to encourage more young Australians to get behind our performer, embrace the fun of the contest, and the spirit of unity and learning about different cultures which Junior Eurovision inspires’
As for who will represent Australia, that’s still unknown at this point. The decision will be made at a later date, and you can be sure we’ll bring you the news when it breaks!
