Martin Green, the new Director of the Eurovision Song Contest, was interviewed back in 2024 about some of the changes that we would be witnessing at the 2025 edition. One of them has now clearly come to fruition and is being witnessed this week as the doors open to the Media Centre in Basel. Press access to the Eurovision Song Contest has been reduced.
This is what Martin Green had to say back in 2024.
“This has all come from delegations and artists themselves asking to have more time to get more confident with their performances before the cameras are let in – and who can blame them? In Eurovision there is unprecedented access. When we live our lives under constant access, we have to look closer at that for the wellbeing of the artists.
“We are going to look at some more of the rehearsal schedule which is closed door.
“Completely unusually, we have two full media rehearsals before a third show. Any idea of restriction here needs to be put in context with other major global events – take it from me who’s done most of those events, the access here is unprecedented.”
There’s much to unpack from Martin Green’s quotes; the fact that this is reacting to delegation and artist feedback, the increased focus on wellbeing in this year’s Song Contest, and the direct impact of these changes on the rehearsal schedule. However, we want to focus on the line “take it from me, who’s done most of those events”.
Martin Green has a CV that includes responsibility for some of the most significant events on the planet. His background and previous experiences are now impacting the Song Contest.
A Philosophy of Surprise and Protection
Martin Green has previously led major UK events, including the 2012 London Olympics and 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. His Eurovision experience came through the 2023 Contest in Liverpool, as Managing Director for the United Kingdom’s co-hosting with Ukraine.
At the 2012 Olympics, Green was Head of Ceremonies, responsible for everything from medal presentations to the Opening Ceremony. The Olympic Torch Relay under his wing aimed for maximum reach: 95% of the UK population lived within an hour of the route. “We want the country to be proud of what we do,” Green said at the time, and getting over ten million to witness the Torch Relay did much to hype up the Olympics, before it all kicked off in London.
Yet the ceremonies themselves were closely guarded secrets. Creative Director Danny Boyle’s team encouraged audiences to #savethesurprise, and leaks were swiftly removed from any of the rehearsals. It was one of the UK’s most important cultural moments, and little was known about the production until the cameras started to roll and the world was watching.
Similarly, as Chief Executive of Hull City of Culture in 2017, Green approved a surprise 75-meter wind turbine blade art installation, even agreeing to submit official planning permission retroactively, fulfilling the artist’s request for secrecy.
Now in his role for the European Broadcasting Union, Green is listening to the requests from artists and delegations to keep things secret. The way Eurovision journalism has worked in the past, spoon-feeding content to the press so every last secret is revealed well before the final show comes together, is juxtaposed against the world of major event management that Martin Green comes from. Partly to keep things secret, but also to allow artists to develop and flourish away from prying eyes.
Speaking to Ding-a-Dong The Dutch Eurovision Podcast this week, Martin Green appreciated that what he described as the “slow release” of content gave “a sense of drama” to the two weeks on the ground at Basel.
“It feels like we’re using that more to build excitement and build drama and tease things, and I think that works well.”
>However, that storytelling issue also goes hand in hand with the welfare of the Contest. While Martin admitted that There is this absolute demand for access, and a lot of that is good.” But this is in contrast wih a feeling of “shock” in the amount of access press and others got at rehearsals, commenting that we should “think abut the effect we’re having on young people and performers.”
The push for surprise and artist protection seems aligned with Green’s long-held philosophy. It also nudges the pendulum of who is the storyteller of the Eurovision Song Contest away from the Contest’s most passionate followers, and more in the hands of the organisers. How do we witness this paradigm shift in 2025 as the Media Centre doors in Basel finally opens?
The Press Centre Of 2025
The Eurovision Song Contest is a vast, glittering spectacle, and the biggest global event that must be prepared in under a year. While TV viewership remains relatively steady, digital engagement is soaring. In 2024, Eurovision’s TikTok exposure quadrupled from 2023, and Instagram reach more than doubled. Public service broadcasts attract viewership four times higher than the slot average for young viewers, and 156 countries voted in the 2024 Grand Final.
It is despite this backdrop of increased interest in the Song Contest that the access to all things Eurovision is now reduced. The first rehearsals on stage have seen just three photographs published from the official team, and those on the morning after each run through rather than rushing through for immediate release. The first full rehearsals will be viewable only in-person, to journalists standing within the arena in Basel itself, and no photography or filming will be allowed. The post-Semi Final press conferences have been ditched, and instead replaced by interviews by the team from the EBU themselves.
As the Press Centre opens we as of yet still don’t know how JJ will dramatically end his Eurovision performance (Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett, EBU)
Furthermore, the capacity in the Media Centre itself has been reduced.
The 2025 Eurovision Press Centre, located in the St. Jakob Arena, will host just 1,000 accredited media, and provide 500 workstations and 200 seats in the Press Conference Room – down from 1,100 in Malmö last year. In 2013, also in Malmö, 1,700 people held press accreditation, in the same building the 2024 Contest used. Düsseldorf in 2011 hosted a record 2,500 accredited journalists and 1,500 workspaces. Even Tallinn in 2002 hosted 1,452.
COVID-era caps limited capacity to 450 and 500. Outside those exceptional years, we are confident in suggesting that the Eurovision Media Centre this year is the smallest this century.
Graph showing the decline in Onsite Media Centre numbers through the 21st Century.
The Reasons For Less Media Today
One obvious factor for the raw decline in numbers is the Online Media Centre, introduced during the pandemic in 2021. Rotterdam’s plan A was to offer 1,500 on-site journalist spots for their hosting, but when pandemic restrictions were still in place, a hybrid model allowed for the 1,000 lost journalists to be invited to the Online Press Centre instead. This hybrid model provides remote access to rehearsals and press conferences, as well as direct ways to contact delegations through the online interface.
The Online Media Centre has been in place every year since 2021, and while the numbers of those accredited in-person might be going down, the numbers in total is likely at a similar level to those accredited before the 2020 cancellation.
Furthermore, maintaining a large physical Media Centre is costly. With rising participation fees, the EBU is under pressure to reduce costs where possible and Executive Supervisor Martin Österdahl has said financial issues are a top priority. With finances a factor for our number of participants, which has not been over 40 since 2019, every expense of the Eurovision Song Contest is rightly under scrutiny to make increases to the participation fee as low as possible for delegations. Every on-site press accreditation requires extra working space, WiFi capacity, security screening, interview rooms and so much more. The Online Media Centre can be managed without all this extra cost.
Journalistic access has narrowed too, reducing the scope of what journalists need from a Press Centre. In 2011, journalists had 14 days of rehearsal access. Nowadays, with less content to cover, and less days to be there for it, journalism narrows in focus. Once upon a time when Eurovision press access was two weeks long, it was rare to see many of the global newspapers and large TV stations stationed up to watch nations’ first rehearsals, with those early days being the Contest’s most dedicated following. The Media Centre almost accommodated for two different groups of people from its first week to its second week. That difference has now all but disappeared.
The ESC 2016 Press Bunker. Photo: Kylie Wilson
Of course, we have to add to all of this the comments from Martin Green about artist wellbeing, shoved firmly into the limelight after the saga of Malmö 2024, including but not limited to the disqualification of Dutch singer Joost in 2024. Yes, the changes this year will put less pressure on rehearsals and less exhaustion on a delegation schedule. But the juxtaposition of dropping in particular press access, at a time when media interest in the Eurovision Song Contest is booming, is a notable choice of prioritsation.
The Balance of the Eurovision Narrative
The 2025 reduction in press facilities follows a trend that Eurovision has already witnessed post-pandemic. In 2023, Liverpool’s rehearsal access reductions, a Contest that Green produced for the BBC, drew backlash. Eight delegations protested in a letter to the EBU, arguing that Semi Final One artists faced disadvantages and reduced exposure because of the Media Centre closures during rehearsals.
Swedish journalist Tobbe Ek at Aftonbladet has previously spoken about reduced press access and how it limits the informal stories and spontaneous moments that drive interest for the wider public, rather than the hardcore Eurovision community. The more controlled the experience from the organisers, the “more static” the content becomes. Control lies in the hands of the organiser, and “you can’t be sure that what you get is actually the whole picture”, he said in 2021, when pandemic restrictions limited access, moving journalism to assessing and analysing official photographs from the broadcaster.
This all runs counter to a 2024 independent review led by Pernille Gaardbo, which urged the EBU to “boost collaboration with fan groups and media to enhance engagement through Eurovision’s core values”: Those values of universality, inclusivity, and celebrating diversity through music might feel harder for the now called ESC-Focused media to engage with when at a surface level it feels their work is further restricted.
One may look at the Master Classes the EBU are running during Eurovision week, with reduced rates for non-professionals in the ESC-focused media, as a way of further bridging this divide. However, if I may speak from experience, the sheer notion that most of the community media would have the free time available in Basel, during Eurovision week, for these workshops is laughable. Many of the hardest working and longest hours spent inside and outside the Media Centre, creating content during Eurovision week, comes from those who love the Contest most.
But it is easy to see one may conclude that one doesn’t need as much media access, especially those orbiting from Eurovision’s closest communities. A generation ago broadcasters relied on the press to engage audiences. Now the EBU communicates directly with fans thanks to 21st century technology and their millions of social media followers. While efficient, this risks losing transparency, a plurality of voices, a critical, vibrant media environment. The EBU can talk about the Song Contest today, but they can’t talk about it without everyone else.
Journalists add nuance and context. The drama surrounding Joost’s disqualification and the controversy surrounding Israel’s participation and fifth-place finish in Malmö 2024, while challenging and days that nobody wants to repeat, ultimately propelled Eurovision to the top of global news agendas. Sanitizing mistakes and controversies, reducing the chance for news stories to come from places nobody anticipated, risks creating a bland and characterless spectacle. A spectacle devoid of the very elements that drive audience engagement, and devoid of the necessary interpretation of what we witness before our eyes and ears.
Solutions, Balance and Collaboration
The opening day of the 2025 Media Centre sees sparse activity. While open from 10:00 to 17:00, there were no scheduled events for anybody making the trek out of the city centre. Eurovision’s Opening Ceremony in central Basel offers infinitely more appeal for most of the journalists in town. Why should any press come to the Media Centre when starting at 14:00 is the Opening Ceremony in the middle of Basel, where all media have access to a special media area? The space is open, but buzzing with activity it isn’t.
This is a missed opportunity. The people keen enough to be in Basel, and keen enough to be in a Media Centre without artists to interview, should have something great to make content about.
Martin Österdahl once called fans and media “culture-holders” who write Eurovision’s “epilogue”, in his own book on project management. Our community succeeds if the Eurovision Song Contest is a success. Community-driven storytelling is a core part of what has got the Eurovision Song Contest to where it is today.
This is no objection to the idea that rehearsals should be kept under wraps for longer, or that artists schedules should be prioritised for press rather than for press events ending way past midnight. But we do point out that the smaller Basel Media Centre hasn’t on the surface prompted a reimagining of how stories are told, or which stories are to be shared. Not all Eurovision coverage must come from the competitive content of the television broadcast. This week Martin Green addressed exactly this point in conversation with Ding-a-Dong The Dutch Eurovision Podcast.
“I think from our media friends, we’ll just see more creative ways of building the excitement and building what’s going on.
“Basel as a city are doing amazing stuff. There’s loads of stuff going on next week. So if anything, what it might do is it might allow more of the city activity to be seen and some more other stories to be told.”
Martin is spot on, but there’s room to be done to make that happen, rather than simply relying on the vague concept of being creative. Instead of allowing a 200 person press conference room to sit empty the day the Media Centre opens, why not invite representatives from Basel to present their plans and initiatives? Why not organize a press conference to highlight the Eurovision Village or EuroClub, or even some of the outreach projects the city has been taking charge of? Why not schedule the Junior Eurovision press conference for this quiet window, ensuring it receives the attention it deserves, rather than as always competing with the main event squeezed into the manic final 48 hours?
Our community media is eager to share the positive stories and celebrate the vibrant tapestry of Eurovision – this community today is far away from merely bloggers wanting to report on the most minor of camera changes or off-key notes in a rehearsal. But this is a community that needs to be informed, empowered, and given access to the narratives that shape the Contest. By fostering a more collaborative relationship with the press, and engaging this community as those narrative-setters for the stories of the Contest , the EBU can harness the passion and expertise of the Eurovision community to amplify every story surrounding Eurovision – a story that is much more than the roughly 8.5 hours of broadcast television.
Eurovision’s online reach is surging, but its physical media infrastructure is shrinking. This disconnect calls for renewed partnership and new ways of thinking, recognizing journalists not as an operational cost, but as storytellers essential to Eurovision’s continued success.
The voices that will feel most diminished by the changes this year are going to be those who are most passionate, and ironically, they’re often the ones best positioned to sing from the same hymn sheet as the EBU, and preach those values we all need to remember. It’s not the secrecy around content that’s the issue – many accept that rationale – but rather the growing distance between the Contest’s organisers and media strategy to some of its most loyal and ambassadorial media stakeholders.