Name: Eurovision tightens rules after Israel voting controversy | BBC News
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The European Broadcasting Union has announced a major overhaul of the way voting works in the Eurovision Song Contest.

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It says the changes are designed to reinforce trust in the event and ensure it remains a celebration of music and unity.

The reforms will come into force next year in Vienna.

It comes after some countries had raised concerns about Israel and the way they topped the public vote at the contest in May, finishing second overall after the jury votes were taken into consideration.

Well, let's bring in our arts and entertainment correspondent, Colin Patterson.

What went wrong in the eyes of some earlier this year?

This is one of the biggest TV events around the world.

166 million people watched the contest in May.

And as you correctly say, there was a lot of worry about what happened with Israel.

This is because of the reports that the Israeli government used cross platform advertising and state social media accounts to encourage people right across Europe to vote for the Israeli entry.

And what happened was Israel won the public vote by a long, long way.

Even in countries where if you went on Spotify to see which were the most popular songs, they weren't even coming in the top 15, they would still win the public vote on the night.

I'm sort of wondering why the UK government hasn't employed those tactics.

No, actually, forget that, since we've never won it or we haven't won it more recently.

Well, what they're saying is they are discouraging, not banning, but

discouraging disproportionate, proportional promotional campaigns, specifically from state governments.

But they are banning the acts who are taking part in the tournament taking part in those campaigns.

And when it comes to voting, crucially, the amount of times people can vote is being reduced from 20 to 10.

So next May, Christian, when you're sitting in the sofa in your pajamas, you can only vote 10 times.

There is actually a different amount of ways you can vote.

In the uk, we can only vote through the app.

In other countries, you can vote through televote, through phone voting or text messaging, in which case you could vote 10 times for each of those.

But in the UK, you can only vote 10 times.

Another change that's going to be brought in.

This is a slightly different tack when it comes to juries.

They're going to come back to the semifinals.

They've not had them since 2022 when there was some very tactical voting between the juries.

Juries saying, we'll vote for you if you vote for us.

And what this all adds up to is the EBU who run the contest hope that when it comes to the General assembly on the 4th and 5th of December, the members of the EBU will say, okay, we are satisfied and allow Israel to take part in next year's Eurovision Song Cont.

Four countries have already said they are boycotting next year's contest if Israel are taking part.

We've got Ireland, Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain.

And that is all to do with what has happened in Gaza and nothing to do with phone votes.

A lot of politicking around the Eurovision Song Contest, but

as you say, hugely important to a lot of people.

Colleen, thank you for bringing us up to speed.

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Eurovision tightens rules after Israel voting controversy | BBC News

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