ROMANIA / Romanian participation in the Eurovision Contest threatened

TVR, the Romanian public television, announced in a statement that its participation in Eurovision 2016, from May 10^th to 14^th in Stockholm, may be rejected.

It might also be denied the broadcast rights to the contest. TVR owes the European Broadcasting Union, Eurovision’s organizer, €10 million, primarily incurred between 2011 and 2012. If the debt is not paid off, Romanian television could lose its EBU membership.

TVR states it sent €250,000 in January, before informing the EBU it no longer had the means to continue paying off its debt.

The group added that the registration fee for the Song Contest was paid on time, and it continues to “take all necessary measures for Romania to participate in Eurovision and retransmit the competition.”

The EBU is waiting for formal responses from the Romanian Government, Parliament and Ministry of Finance, each of which it alerted in early March so that measures could be taken to prevent “a financial melt-down” at TVR.

According to the report submitted to Parliament last week, in 2015 the Romanian public broadcaster recorded losses of €5.3 million, the second consecutive year it has run up a deficit: 2014 was a very complicated year, with the company loosing €18.4 million.

Sources : Romania Insider, The Guardian, Satellifax