Vienna revealed as Host City for 70th Eurovision Song Contest in 2026
Vienna is the host city of the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in 2026, chosen by the Austrian ORF and the EBU
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Intervision Song Contest then and now – rival song contests of rival organisations (Part 1/3)
“Back to the Future: the Russian version of the Eurovision Song Contest, Intervision, may indeed return” was the title of our professional review for the OurVision International website in 2023, However, history is now repeating itself, as the initial plans have now taken shape – an overview of the beginnings of the Russian version of the song contest, the first Intervision period.
These years are marked by many anniversaries: in 2026, close to the exact anniversary, the 70th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest will be broadcast on 16 May. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the organisation that conceived and ‘maintains’ the Eurovision Song Contest, was founded in Torquay, UK, 75 years ago this year – and the predecessor of the Intervision Song Contest and the Sopot International Song Contest, the Czechoslovak Golden Key Intervision Contest (originally Zlatý klíč Intervize), was held 60 years ago.
The organisation behind Intervision and networking: the story that began exactly a century ago
However, the story goes back 100 years: on 3-4/10 April 1925, broadcasters from 10 European countries* founded the International Broadcasting Union (officially known as the Union Internationale de Radiophonie, or IBU/UIR) in Geneva, with its technical centre in Brussels. The establishment of the organisation itself was a response to the evolution of technology: the IBU was partly a continuation of the thinking of the International Telegraph Union (ITU), founded in 1865, which focused on wireless point-to-point communications, but by the 1920s there was a need to regulate national and international broadcasting, to solve the multiple and highly complex problems of the proliferation of radio stations and to professionalise broadcasting as radio receivers were introduced in their millions.
However, the organisation, initially set up as an initiative of private radio stations and the British BBC, has been blighted by a number of historical and historic events. During the Second World War, the Third Reich’s army first recovered the equipment of the Brussels measuring centre, which had been taken to Switzerland in early 1941, and used it for radio surveillance of Allied forces – 13 member countries** withdrew from cooperation with the organisation, which was then under German control.
From German control to Soviet predominance
Although the IBU survived the war because of its collaboration with Nazi Germany, its credibility and professionalism became questionable. In this respect, 1946 and the following years were a turning point for the IBU. At a conference convened in March 1946, it was suggested that a structural reorganisation of IBU bringing together the member countries was essential, but representatives of the then Soviet Radio Committee also proposed the creation of a successor organisation to the IBU to take over its functions, including the issue of radio frequency allocation, which was a priority at the time. In addition, preparations would begin for the European Broadcasting Conference (EBC) in Copenhagen in 1948, which would be responsible for drawing up detailed plans for the allocation of radio frequencies. This plan, later to be known as ‘The Copenhagen Frequency plan’, will require the involvement of a body of experts responsible for implementing the decisions. The Soviet side has argued that the task, which in the pre-war years had been carried out by the IBU, should now be transferred to a new organisation.
The BBC, which had left the IBU during the war, took a wait-and-see, reserved position on the dissolution of the IBU and the creation of a new organisation: the British broadcaster’s decision-makers saw in the draft rules of the new union that the Soviet Union would gain considerable influence if each member state – and thus each Soviet republic separately – had one vote, but that this regulation would also give France a greater say – four votes to be precise – through the inclusion of colonial territories in North Africa. The new organisation was finally set up without British participation on 27-28 June 1946: the International Broadcasting Organisation (officially: Organisation Internationale de Radiodiffusion; IBO/OIR as abbreviation) was founded by 26 countries, with its headquarters in Brussels-Prague. At the IBU’s general assembly the following day, the proposal to dissolve itself fails to obtain the necessary majority, but the majority of members – 18 out of 28 – leave the IBU and join the IBO, dominated by the Soviet Union and France, as co-founders.
Two pipers in a tavern?
But the main problem remained: by the end of the 1940s, two organisations – the IBU and the IBO – were competing for the role of experts in frequency allocation. To reach a consensus, a series of negotiations with the British broadcaster BBC, involving the two organisations, are launched to resolve technical and disagreements, but historical-political issues also hamper decision-making, deepening tensions between the West and the East, and no substantive agreement on the allocation of radio frequencies is reached at the Copenhagen conference. In addition, the situation has escalated as the IBO has started to rent the IBU’s technical centre in Brussels, where it now employs its own staff under its own control.
In August 1949, negotiations were held again in Stresa: a meeting between the IBU, the BBC and the IBO led to a series of discussions between all three parties and within the IBO, with France, the Netherlands, Italy and Belgium announcing their intention to leave the newly formed organisation. There is a growing consensus in Western Europe that the IBU/IBO dispute could be resolved by the creation of a completely new, purely Western-based radio organisation, but the question of a chairman and headquarters, as well as the possible dominance of the BBC, have raised further questions.
The clarification of the situation was seen in a conference held in Paris from 31 October to 1 November 1949, at which delegations from Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Italy met and declared that “the various national broadcasting companies of Western Europe are ready to leave the IBO in favour of a ‘Western’ broadcasting association”. In addition to the creation of the new organisation, the Joint Technical Committee also had to clarify a number of details: on the one hand, it was considered important to clarify whether the remnant of the IBO was willing to give up its equipment, still rented in Brussels, and its former IBU staff, but it also had to decide whether West Germany, which had in the meantime been declared undesirable, should be a founding member of the new organisation.
The result of the meeting is now known to all Eurovision fans: 1950. On 12 February 1950, the inaugural meeting of the new Western European Radio Organisation was held in Torquay in the south of England, during which 23 countries founded the European Broadcasting Union (officially known as the European Broadcasting Union; EBU) operating in the ITU’s European Broadcasting Area and the end of the IBU’s existence seemed to settle the row over frequency reallocation and rivalry between broadcasting organisations.
List of members – member countries – of IBU (UIR), IBO (OIR, later OIRT) and EBU and changes
| Country | IBU membership | OIR/OIRT (IBO) membership | EBU membership | |
| AFG | Afghanistan | – | 1978–1992 | – |
| ALB | Albania | – | 1946–1961 | 1999– |
| AND | Andorra | – | – | 2002– |
| ARM | Armenia | – | – | 2005– |
| AUS | Australia | – | – | Associate member; 1950– (ABC), 1979– (SBS) |
| AUT | Austria | 1925–1950 | – | 1953– |
| AZE | Azerbaijan | – | – | 2007– |
| BEL | Belgium | 1925–1950 | 1946–1950 (INR, NIR) | 1950–1960 (INR, NIR), 1950– (VRT, RTBF) |
| BGD | Bangladesh | – | – | Associate member; 1974– |
| BGR | Bulgaria | – | 1946–1992 (BNR), 1959–1992 (BNT) | 1993– |
| BIH | Bosnia and Herzegovina | – | – | 1993– |
| BLR | Belarus | – | 1991–1992 | 1993– (currently suspended) |
| BRA | Brazil | – | – | 2012– |
| CAN | Canada | – | – | Associate member; 1950– |
| CHE | Switzerland | 1925–1950 | – | 1950– |
| CHL | Chile | – | – | Associate member; 1971– |
| CHN | China | – | 1952–1961 (RP), 1958–1961 (BTV) | Associate member; 2010– (CMG), 2016– (SMG) |
| CUB | Cuba | – | 1962–1992 | 1992– |
| CSK | Czechoslovakia | – | 1946–1992 (ČSR), 1957–1992 (ČST) | 1991–1992 (ČST) |
| CYP | Cyprus | – | – | 1969– |
| CZE | Czech Republic | – | – (Czechoslovakia: 1946–1992) | 1994– |
| DDR | East Germany | – | 1951–1990 (DDR), 1952–1990 (DFF) | After reunification, EBU via FRG |
| DEU | Germany (FRG) | 1925–1950 | Associate member (ARD, ZDF): 1988–1992 | 1952– (ARD), 1963– (ZDF) |
| DNK | Denmark | 1925–1950 | – | 1950– (DR), 1989– (DK, TV2) |
| DZA | Algeria | – | 1962–1970 | 1970– |
| EGY | Egypt | – | 1946–1950 | 1985– |
| ESP | Spain | – | – | 1955– (RTVE), 1986–1993 (A3R), 1998–2019 (COPE), 192–2020 (SER) |
| EST | Estonia | – | 1991–1992 (ER, ETV) | 1993– (ERR) |
| FIN | Finland | 1925–1950 | 1946–1992 | 1950– (YLE), 1993–2019 (MTV3) |
| FRA | France | 1925–1950 | 1946–1950 | 1950– (GRF), 1950–1964 (RTF), 1964–1975 (ORTF), 1975–1982 (TDF), 1975–2018 (TF1), 1978–2022 (Europe1), 1983–1992 (OFRT), 1984–2018 (C+) |
| GBR | United Kingdom | 1925–1950 | – | 1950– (BBC), 1960– (UKIB), 1959–1972 (ITA), 1959–1981 (ITCA), 1972–1981 (IBA), 1981–2006 (CRCA) |
| GEO | Georgia | – | – | 2005– (GPB), associates: 2003– (RB), 2004– (TEME) |
| GRC | Greece | – | – | 1950–2013, 2015– (ERT), 2014–2015 (NERIT) |
| HKG | Hong Kong | – | – | Associate member; 1983– |
| HUN | Hungary | – | 1946–1992 (HU), 1952–1992 (MTV) | 1993–2014 (MR, MTV), 2015– (MTVA, DMSZ) |
| IRL | Ireland | 1925–1950 | – | 1950– (RTÉ), 2007– (TG4) |
| IRN | Iran | – | – | Associate member; 1969– |
| ISL | Iceland | – | – | 1956– |
| ISR | Israel | – | – | 1957–2017 (IBA), 2018– (IPBC) |
| ITA | Italy | 1925–1950 | 1946–1950 | 1950– |
| JOR | Jordan | – | – | 1970– |
| JPN | Japan | – | – | Associate member; 1951– (NHK), 2000– (TBS) |
| KAZ | Kazakhstan | – | – | Associate member; 2016– |
| KOR | South Korea | – | – | Associate member; 1974– |
| LBN | Lebanon | – | 1946–1950 | 1950– / 1980– |
| LBY | Libya | – | – | 1974–2011, 2011– (LNC; suspended) |
| LTU | Lithuania | – | 1991–1992 | 1993– |
| LUX | Luxembourg | 1925–1950 | 1946–1950 | 1950– (CLT), 1996–2022 (ERSL), 1997– (MSP) |
| LVA | Latvia | – | 1991–1992 | 1993– |
| MAR | Morocco | – | 1946–1950 | 1950– |
| MDA | Moldova | – | 1991–1992 | 1993– |
| MCO | Monaco | – | 1946–1950 | 1950–2021 (RMC, TMC), 1950– (VM, 2014– TV Monaco) |
| MKD | North Macedonia | – | – | 1993– |
| MLT | Malta | – | – | 1970–2003 (MBA), 1970– (PBS) |
| MNE | Montenegro | – | – | 2006– |
| MNG | Mongolia | – | Associate member; 1967–1992 | – |
| MUS | Mauritius | – | – | Associate member; 1980– |
| MYS | Malaysia | – | – | Associate member; 1970– |
| NIC | Nicaragua | – | 1984–1990 | – |
| NLD | Netherlands | 1925–1950 | 1946–1950 | 1950– (NOS), 1964–2014 (TROS) |
| NOR | Norway | 1925–1950 | – | 1950– (NRK), 1993– (NO/TV2) |
| NPL | Nepal | – | – | Associate member; 1980– |
| NZL | New Zealand | – | – | Associate member; 1950– |
| OMN | Oman | – | – | Associate member; 1976– |
| PRK | North Korea | – | 1953–1992 | – |
| POL | Poland | – | 1946–1992 (PR), 1952–1992 (TVP) | 1993– |
| PRT | Portugal | – | – | 1959– |
| ROU | Romania | – | 1946–1992 (ROR), 1956–1992 (TVR) | 1993– |
| RUS | Russia | – | 1991–1992 (independent); earlier USSR 1946–1991 | 1993– (RTR, later Channel One, RDO) — currently suspended |
| SCG | Serbia and Montenegro | – | – | 2001–2006 (UJRT) |
| SMR | San Marino | – | – | 1995– |
| SRB | Serbia | – | – | 2006– |
| SVK | Slovakia | – | – (Czechoslovakia: 1946–1992) | 1993–2011 (SRo, STV), 2011–2024 (RTVS), 2024– (STVR) |
| SVN | Slovenia | – | – (Yugoslavia: 1946–1950) | 1993– |
| SWE | Sweden | 1925–1950 | – | 1950– (SRT), 2004–2019 (SE/TV4) |
| SYR | Syria | – | 1946–1992 | Associate member; 1978– |
| TUN | Tunisia | – | 1946–1950 | 1990–2007 (ERTT), 2007– (RTT) |
| TUR | Turkey | – | – | 1950– |
| UKR | Ukraine | – | 1991–1992 | 1993– |
| USA | United States | – | – | Associate member; 1953– (NBC), 1956– (CBS), 1959– (ABC), 1971– (NPR), 1980– (WFMT), 2004– (APM) |
| VAT | Vatican City | – | – | 1950– |
| VNM | Vietnam | – | 1956–1992 (VOV), 1976–1992 (VTV) | – |
| YEM | South Yemen | – | 1971–1990 | – |
| YUG | Yugoslavia | – | 1946–1950 | 1950–1992 (JRT) |
* the IBU founding member countries: Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain
** the withdrawing member countries include: the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands
Source: EBU.ch / OurVision International
Illustration: Early IBU (UIR) and IBO (OIR, later OIRT) logos on OurVision International graphics; logos are the courtesy of the European Broadcasting Union.