North Broadcasting Union • Official Announcements

Copenhagen, Denmark • 16th June 2018

Ahead of the 25th edition, the NBU council met in Copenhagen to discuss several of urgent matters regarding the future of the competition. During the meeting, a few decisions were made; the majority of these changes will be in effect starting from the 26th edition.

Removal of Head of Delegations

After a unanimous vote, it was decided that both the Algerian and Slovak Head of Delegations would be instantly removed from the competition. The two users will no longer fulfill their duties for their respective broadcasters starting from the 26th edition. This was decided upon the fact that the NBU had severe communication errors that resulted in no response from the delegations; therfore, the NBU was forced to remove the broadcasters for the time being.

Both countries will be assigned a new Head of Delegation for the 26th edition and may return in the competition as long as they sort our the requirements for their participation. Furthermore, moving into the next editions of the contest, more strict rules will be applied regarding the communication, cooperation and activity of the Heads of Delegation with the NBU.

New format for the sneak peeks

Another change for the forthcoming editions of the competition is the new format for the sneak peeks. Owing to the high amount of late song announcements that were made during the past editions, it was decided that the countries would now be randomized into the sneak peeks rather than using the order of announcement. Subsequently, the sneak peeks will be presented after all the songs have been announced adding an extra week before the semi-finals.

Two separate deadlines for entries

The frequent late song announcements also lead to another major change; it was decided that instead of having one deadline for entries, there will now be two individual deadlines; the first deadline will be for submission of the entries, including both internal and national selection entries, while the second deadline will be for presentation of the entries. This will ensure that all entries are submitted in time instead of having entries submitted to the council last minute.

Changes regarding the withdrawal rule

After several complaints made to the NBU council concerning the withdrawal rule that was implemented in the competition in the 8th edition, it was decided that it would be adjusted. Up to this edition, countries that had a change of Head of Delegation had to withdraw for one edition before being able to compete under their new leadership. However, this often caused complications due to the variety of the situations.

Because of that, it was decided that the countries will not be forced to withdraw unless the country will compete in the next Pre-Qualification Round. This means that users receiving new countries with draws or current players swapping countries will not always have to withdraw from the next edition.

Rick's official departure

After nearly five editions of inactivity, it is now official that Rick will be leaving the NBU council. Rick was a member of the council for about 15 editions and has put a great amount of work and effort into making this competition better. The council would like to thank him for everything he has done for the contest and is looking forward to cooperating with him in the future.

However, he will remain part of the waiting list and whenever he's available to return to the competition, he will be offered the chance to take part in the draw for the next available country.

RotW voting in the semi-finals

Due to high demand of a "Rest of the World" voting in the semi-finals, the NBU decided to implement that for the upcoming 25th edition. In addition to being able to vote in the final, all non-participating users and fans around the world will now be able to cast their votes in the semi-finals too! The voting will work the same way as it did in the final, but instead of having an earier deadline for the Rest of the World, the deadline in the semi-finals will be the same as the one for the participating countries.

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