Rule/Format Changes for 2010

[Beanie]

Not many changes this year, but the few that they have made look massive to me.

Firstly, the voting this year will be open throughout the final until 15 minutes after the end of the final song, as opposed to recent years when it opens after the last song.

That effectively flips the importance of the running order on its head...first becomes best and last becomes worst? Also, I'd say it lends a big advantage to the 'passionate' countries...in particular looking at Greece and Turkey whose fans are a little bit mental. 2 hours of mashing the redial button(esp Turkey and their massive expat communities around Europe) and thats a good start to winning.

Second, the semi final is now 50% televoting, 50% jury, rather than the 100% televoting it was last year.

[kompressaur]

Holy thats madness for the final. that and pure greed. shit this thing aint what it used to be

[MickeyPaul]

Ay carrumba. That's slightly terrifying. I'm not sure my brain will be able to cope but I agree that could make the likes of Turkey even more dangerous this year.

[squallsquall]

Originally Posted by Beanie

Second, the semi final is now 50% televoting, 50% jury, rather than the 100% televoting it was last year.

Wow. That sucks sooo bad for betting. Just a complete disaster, imo.

[Beanie]

I kinda think its better to be honest ss. The televoting in the semi finals is absolutely tiny in some countries - what separates a song getting 1 point and a song getting 5 points is probably about 100 calls in some cases(or less!) - how on earth can you make allowances and try and guage that kind of thing?

Whereas juries are probably more predictable - the type of songs they go for is fairly standard, and it will reward those that put the research in to what those songs are that should make big profits this year.

[squallsquall]

Well, I'm probably just grumpy as I see this as a threat to my nice streak

I'm still sceptical though. While it might be true that as little as 100 televoters can create a 4 point swing in some countries, remember that one single jury member can do this now in EVERY country. I really feel it's much harder to predict the very small crowds that juries represent. I actually haven't analyzed the jury results from last year yet, so I wouldn't know how homogenous the are - but I do know that the Swedish national juries for our qualifier are all over the place. Seemingly total randomness. I'd hate that to happen to my cash cow ESC