🇸🇰 Slovakia: STVR to Assess Participation in the Eurovision Song Contest

The Slovak broadcaster STVR will assess participation in the Eurovision Song Contest following changes to the broadcasters management.

Speaking to ESC Spot, Filip Púchovský, a representative of the Marketing and Communication Department of the Slovak broadcaster STVR stated that it will look at participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. In a statement to the website, the channel highlighted that:

“Slovakia’s participation in Eurovision has been the subject of several internal analyses in the past. It has long been shown that the costs of full participation – including licensing fees, production and logistics – are disproportionately high in relation to revenues or public perception.”

The statement goes on to highlight that the Slovak public broadcaster has a number of competing priorities that drives its spending:

“As a public institution, it is important that STVR prioritises investing resources in original content, programme production, news and the development of young talent on the national stage. “

They added that Slovakia could examine the potential for collaborating with private sponsors to enable participation in the contest:

“Slovakia is a small country with a limited media market and public budget. Some countries of similar size participate in Eurovision, but often in cooperation with the private sector or with the support of sponsoring partners. Slovakia has not yet benefited from this form of funding.”

While reflecting on these challenges and opportunities, they added that the channel will reassess its potential participation in the contest and could return should certain factors be met:

“With the arrival of a new, duly elected STVR management, we plan to reassess Slovakia’s participation in international projects, including Eurovision. It is possible that in the future – assuming favourable budgetary and artistic conditions – we will try to return to Eurovision.”

Slovakia last took part in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012, when Max Jason Mai finished last in the second semi-final with “Don’t Close Your Eyes”. Monaco is currently looking at whether they will participate in Eurovision 2025, having last participated in 2006.

Image Source: Eurovision.tv | Source: ESC Spot

Since its debut in 1994, Slovakia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest a total of seven times. Slovakia’s best result was in 1996 when Marcel Palonder finished 18th with the song “Kým nás máš”. The country has a history of withdrawing and returning to the contest. They were relegated from the contest in 1995 and 1997. They then withdrew from the contest entirely between 1999 and 2008, and again from 2013 onwards. All Slovak entries between 2009 and 2012 failed to progress from the semi-finals. Their 2011 entry “I’m Still Alive” came the closest to qualifying, placing 13th in the semi-final. It was also the first Slovak entry to be entirely in English.

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