Eurovision Song Contest Rivals Largest Sports Productions in Scale and Reach Competition with artists from 37 countries drew more than 160 million on-air, online viewers By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Tuesday, May 16, 2023 - 11:15 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Is there a broadcast competition that could dwarf the recent NFL Draft or even the Olympics? There is, and it took place on Sunday in Liverpool, UK.
With teams from 37 countries competing, the 2023 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest may appear to be a European version of The Voice or American Idol, but the joint production by host broadcaster BBC and EBU Eurovision Network (comprising more than 100 public broadcasters across Europe) managed 50 live feeds of two semifinals on May 9 and 11 and 26 feeds for the finale on May 13, totaling eight hours of live performance.
Attracting an estimated audience of more than 160 million on-air and online via TikTok and YouTube, the production arguably had much in common with a World Cup series, with entries competing for national honors as much as for artistic achievement. Its fan voting procedures are as convoluted as those for an NFL Draft.
It is the biggest live music event in the world by audience, and no other show attempts live voting on this scale, Eurovision Services Project Leader Lennard Bartlett told SVGEurope. There's no other show like it.
The Big Show The event took place at Liverpool's M&S Bank Arena. Normally, the previous year's winner would host, but 2022 victor Ukraine was unavailable because of the war with Russia (whose Eurovision entries have been barred since the 2022 invasion). In fact, air-raid sirens sounded across Ukraine as this year's contest was under way).
Staging was on a colossal scale: a reported 8 miles of cabling for lighting, sound, video, and SFX; more than 2,000 specialist lighting fixtures; 200 custom staging decks; and 10,225 sq. ft. of staging for the main stage. The lighting alone required 165,000 channels and 23,700 individual light sources held aloft by most of the 600 rigging points, including 2,500 automated color-changing robotic lights and 15 follow spots, controlled via nine lighting consoles running 28,000 lighting cues.
The Sound of Music The event's audio required deployment of 150 mostly wireless microphones and more than 1,200 individual streams of audio. Live venue sound was through L-Acoustics L-Series PA speakers and mixed over DiGiCo consoles, both provided by production integrator Britannia Row.
Comms were understandably both critical and complex. Riedel Communications, with a crew of 22 onsite, deployed more than 100 RSP series intercom panels, 170 Bolero full-duplex wireless beltpacks and associated accessories, and 10 C3 full-duplex wired beltpacks - much of it on 10 miles of fiber backbone. Signal distribution and management was based on MediorNet, handling about 200 audio and 400 video signals and associated services. Additionally, there were 32 simplex and semi-duplex radio channels for 250 handheld radios plus associated accessories for broadcast/show-related communications, such as show call, TV crew, and stage management.
The co-production of BBC and EBU Eurovision Network managed as many as 50 live feeds in 8 hours of live performance.
Just as with any major broadcast-sports event, the picture and sound weren't left to speak for themselves: 29 commentators provided live annotation from the arena, with Riedel providing 45 CCP commentary panels, 90 monitors, and a centralized routing facility housing commentary and coordination lines for 30 master-control rooms in 24 countries across Europe and the world.
The event's logistics rivaled the Super Bowl halftime spectacular's usual chaotic changeover from game to show. The Eurovision Song Contest managed to switch all 37 of its musical moments with less than 50 seconds to strike and set between performances.
Replays, of course, are available: all 37 songs are available via various streaming services and on the event's official YouTube channel. The competition streamed in the U.S. on NBC/Comcast's Peacock.
SVT won the 67th Eurovision Song Contest with Tattoo, performed by Swedish chanteuse Loreen - only the second artist (and only female) to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice, having done so in 2012). Sweden now has seven victories in the Eurovision Song Contest, equaling Ireland's record set in 1996.
Fans track the Eurovision artists as avidly as they follow their sports teams. As one superfan put it to the BBC, It's like sport without the sport. The event is an avatar of the convergence of sports and entertainment that is leading the growth in all types of media, including broadcast and streaming.
For instance, on June 10, Nigerian Grammy Award-winning and multi-platinum-selling singer, songwriter, and producer Burna Boy will co-headline the 2023 UEFA Champions League Final Kick Off Show by Pepsi at Istanbul's Atat rk Olympic Stadium. Last year's show was topped by Camila Cabello at the Stade de France. And of course, the Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies have come to resemble events like the Grammy Awards.
PepsiCo VP, Global Brand Marketing, Eric Melis, who oversees the brand relationship between UEFA and Pepsi (the Super Bowl's halftime sponsor for a decade until Apple took over this year), told UK-based Sport Industry Group in March, It's no secret that the lines between sport and popular culture are rapidly blurring. At an ever increasing rate, we're seeing the often segmented worlds of music, fashion, art, and sport collide.
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
20/11/2025
LONDON The winners of the Rise Awards 2025, which recognize women and companies whose achievements have stood out in the media technology industry, have been an...
20/11/2025
SANTA MONICA & NEW YORK Lionsgate's Worldwide Television Distribution Group and Debmar-Mercury have launched MovieSphere Gold in more than 30 million homes....
20/11/2025
ALAMEDA, Calif. Clear-Com has introduced its four-channel HelixNet beltpack, a next-generation advancement of its widely used two-channel model, and anticipates...
20/11/2025
NEW PROVIDENCE, N.J. Streaming technology and services provider Kiswe has launched Kiswe Core, a next-generation cloud-based platform designed to simplify the s...
20/11/2025
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. Dolby Laboratories has signed on as an official signature partner of the Bay Area Host Committee (BAHC) for the 2026 Super Bowl and the we...
20/11/2025
STUTTGART, Germany 3 Screen Solutions (3SS) has announced that the Canadian multiservice operator Telus has launched its Telus TV+ entertainment platform on Sam...
20/11/2025
Major League Baseball has announced deals with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix covering 2026-2028 that make ESPN the exclusive rightsholder of MLB.TV, see regula...
20/11/2025
Berklee Presents Holiday Extravaganza: Duke Ellingtons The Nutcracker Suite and ...
20/11/2025
The How To Gael pocast gals, comedian Chris Kent and quizzer Darragh Ennis drop by for the fifth episode of The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In
In the penultimat...
20/11/2025
Tonight on RT Prime Time, Marie Crowe on how a Reading School changed her son&#...
20/11/2025
The NVIDIA Blackwell RTX upgrade is nearing the finish line, letting GeForce NOW Ultimate members across the globe experience true next-generation cloud gaming ...
20/11/2025
Tanya Berger-Wolf's first computational biology project started as a bet wit...
19/11/2025
Sphere Sound Kicks Up Its Heels at Radio City Music HallUltra-immersive system from the singular Las Vegas venue is also ready for sportsBy Dan Daley, Audio Edi...
19/11/2025
The Future of Stadium and Arena Video Control Rooms: Tech Leaders Talk 4K, IP, a...
19/11/2025
One Year at Intuit Dome: Walking Through the Stunning Arena's Advanced Video...
19/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: IMG's Francois Westcombe Goes Inside IMG's Annual Digital ...
19/11/2025
Inside Brighton & Hove Albion's fan-first media machine By George Bevir
Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 10:10
Print This Story
Brighton & Hove Albion'...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 1: Kansas Athletics Brings New Production Power to Rebu...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 2: A Pro's Guide to Kansas Athletics' New Video...
19/11/2025
MLB Media Rights Shakeup: NBC Inks Three-Year Deal for Sunday Night Baseball, Pe...
19/11/2025
Rohan Parashuram Kanawade attends the premiere of Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theatre on January 26, 2025, in Pa...
19/11/2025
Awards season is heating up, and the International Documentary Association just ...
19/11/2025
Aerojet Rocketdyne President Ken Bedingfield and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders were joined by state and local officials to celebrate the groundbreaking o...
19/11/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
19/11/2025
Calrec gives Phoenix Broadcast Solutions its full support in strategic multi-year enterprise partnership New Singapore OB company invests in Calrec technology f...
19/11/2025
October brings a larger audience in front of TV screens. The cooler autumn weather and the continuation of new programming schedules brought increases in both t...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Vitec has acquired Datapath, a developer of real-time video processing for large-scale video walls, AVoIP content distribution and KVM control in mission-critic...
19/11/2025
NEVADA CITY, Calif. Telestream has introduced ARGUS Version 2.3, which introduces Live Look, a feature that lets operators inspect live and on-demand streams vi...
19/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. and NEW YORK Charter Communications, Inc. has announced a major deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that establishes AWS as one of Charters stra...
19/11/2025
TOKYO Atomos has announced a major firmware update that brings integrated camera control to the Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX its new CFexpress-based monitor-recor...
19/11/2025
Berklee's Signature Series Reimagines the Musical and Visual Artistry of Col...
19/11/2025
PlayBox Neo departed the NAB Show New York 2025 on a high note. The company's all-new PlayBox Neo Suite made a splash on the show floor, drawing strong inte...
19/11/2025
AAVBR (American Audio Visual Baton Rouge), a leading full-service event production company serving Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region, has enhanced its product...
19/11/2025
In its mission to deliver live event services combining advanced engineering with a creative approach to captivating live sports and entertainment experiences, ...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK Short-form vertical video has exploded across platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, but a new survey commissioned by Media.net, a provider of c...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK YES Network, the regional sports network home of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets, and CAMB.AI have struck a partnership they said will leverage ...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has issued detailed guidance on filings that were disrupted by the government shutdown. While many of those fil...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK The popularity of NFL games is largely responsible for continued seasonal momentum in TV viewership into October (measured Sept. 29-Oct. 26), according...
19/11/2025
DirecTV has announced that its MyFree DirecTV streaming service has added seven new channels. Those include four sports services, NBA FAST, Red Bull TV, DAZN Ri...
19/11/2025
SURREY, U.K. Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has launched Flair Bridge, a compact device that transforms how operators control the company's motion-contr...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission, which is continuing to rapidly ramp up its operations after the end of the federal government shutdown, has se...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Martin Freeman, Jessie Buckley, Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon, Eddie the Eagle and ...
19/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz collaborates with Broadcom to enable testing and validation of n...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Innato, starring Imanol Arias and Elena Anaya, arrives on Netf...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Guillermo del Toro Sits Down With Troll 2 Director Roar Uthaug...
19/11/2025
Some projects feel monumental from the moment the first phone call comes in. When BCE, the host broadcaster appointed to coordinate the national coverage, asked...
Eurovision Song Contest Rivals Largest Sports Productions in Scale and Reach Competition with artists from 37 countries drew more than 160 million on-air, online viewers By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
