In this essay the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) and its main organisation will be discussed. Events history, profile, organisation, and management issues will be covered. The strategic considerations for the organisational growth and development of the ESC, the evaluation of the structure of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) – owner, will be discussed, as well evaluation of the environment of the EBU and discussion about decision making process will be included. The ESC planning approaches and brief review, evaluation of other management issues, trends and challenges facing the ESC organisers will be mentioned.
According to theory there are several ways how to categorize events, including size, content and form. Special events vary in size and complexity, from small and simple, such as the village fête, to the huge, complex and international, such as the Olympic Games (Shone, 2001). Figure about types of events can be found in Appendix 1. The ESC is live, annual, televised music competition that has been held among active member countries of EBU since 1956. It is one of the world’s longest-running television programmes. The first ESC was held in Lugano, Switzerland, and was passed to less than ten nations. Since that time the contest has developed into a spring ritual and become a genuine European tradition which now is viewed by 600 million people in 35 countries, including several in Asia and the Middle East (Murray, 2009). The large audience makes it as one of the world’s most-watched non-sporting event. In 2009, the contest will be held in Moscow, Russia, celebrating the ESC 54th anniversary. According to the ESC Rules all member countries present a song to be represented on live television. To find out the most liked song in the contest, cast ballots for the other countries’ songs. Participating countries take part in contest through one of countries national EBU member television stations. These stations duty is to pick out a singer and a song that will stand for their country in the ESC (EBU, 2009). According to Ugreóic (2003) the ESC is many European’s favourite annual television entertainment, a grandiose presentation of European pop music art.
