One week til the Eurovision Song Contest

[Jim S.]

The semifinals are May 7th and 9th, and the final is May 11.

It appears that RTPi will be carrying it live at 3PM EDT on the 7th, delayed to 5:30 PM EDT on the 9th, and live at 3PM EDT on the 11th.

BVN is carrying it, but I can't find a way to get their website to tell me what timezone the schedule is in. In the past, I believe they've aired it delayed at 8PM EDT.

Romania isn't competing this year, so I don't know whether TVRi will be carrying it.

I believe I've seen it airing on the Armenian channel on 97W in the past, but the video quality is hideous so I won't be spending any time trying to locate the schedule.

 

[cyberham]

I wonder if there is any English-speaking country/channel that will cover it?

 

[a33]

BVN is carrying it, but I can't find a way to get their website to tell me what timezone the schedule is in.

I believe this website gives it in actual dutch time, which is UTC+2 (summertime):

Gids | BVN

www.bvn.tv

 

[N5XZS]

And also in HD no 480i or 576i, only in true HD listed here 720p, 1080i or P, would be a shocker if they send in 2160p video format!

 

[Jim S.]

I wonder if there is any English-speaking country/channel that will cover it?

The UK (and Ireland also?) participates. I think a lot of English-speaking people use VPNs to stream the BBC.

It was carried by Logo, MTV's gay-themed channel, for a few years, but I'm not sure they still do. It was also on Peacock, the NBC/Comcast streaming platform, for a few years, but again I haven't checked because that channel is no longer free to me even as a Comcast internet subscriber.

The on-stage MCs narrate the the event in English and French rather than the local language, just like the Olympics, but the broadcasters typically have someone talking over it in their local language, so sometimes you can understand them and sometimes you can't.

I believe this website gives it in actual dutch time, which is UTC+2 (summertime):

Gids | BVN

www.bvn.tv

It was the +2 that was confusing me, there was no way that Holland is that far east of the UK. I can't keep track of which countries have summer time. I also thought that their website used to let you select your timezone like RTPi's does.

 

[cyberham]

...was the +2 that was confusing me, there was no way that Holland is that far east of the UK. I can't keep track of which countries have summer time...

London is UTC+1 now. Amsterdam is UTC+2 now. Just 1 hour to the east.

 

[a33]

It was the +2 that was confusing me, there was no way that Holland is that far east of the UK.

You are correct there. Sun at true south is only about 20 minutes difference with the UTC-time.
However we participate in the so-called "central european time zone", UTC+1.
Summertime adds another hour to it, UTC+2, from last weekend in march, to last weekend in october.

Enjoy the Song contest!

Greetz,
A33

 

[a33]

I also thought that their website used to let you select your timezone like RTPi's does.

Indeed, the BVN website seems to have that!
At the top right, there is a box, with a drawing of a pencil. You can fill in a location (city) there, and then the program times are adapted.
I didn't know that feature...!

Greetz,
A33

 

[KyL416]

It was carried by Logo, MTV's gay-themed channel, for a few years, but I'm not sure they still do. It was also on Peacock, the NBC/Comcast streaming platform, for a few years, but again I haven't checked because that channel is no longer free to me even as a Comcast internet subscriber.

Logo no longer has it, it has been Peacock only in the USA for the past few years, and they force the EBU to geoblock the global feed on YouTube. Peacock has the event pages up for the upcoming semifinals and the grand final. Peacock just passes the raw global feed, they don't have their own commentary like Logo did.

I wonder if there is any English-speaking country/channel that will cover it?

The only participating English commentary countries are Ireland, UK and Australia. RTE Ireland and SBS Australia don't have interntional feeds and the BBC doesn't carry it on their international partner channels.

 

[kofi123]

RTE Ireland and SBS Australia don't have interntional feeds

While I suppose they could geoblock to the US at any time in the future, RTE has never geoblocked their broadcasts of the contest through RTE Player, their live and on demand streaming service. The live streams are good quality 1080p at 6 Mbps.

 

[KyL416]

Yeah, some of the networks open up their online streams for programming they can show worldwide.

ARD also opens up their streams for their German telecast, ORF Austria usually does too.

France Televisions opens up their streams for newscasts, but I'm not sure if they are going to do it for Eurovision.

RTBF in French speaking Belgium usually opens up their stream, but VRT in Flanders is hit and miss, lately only newscasts have been available outside of the EU, while within the EU most content can stream after you register an account and use a Belgian cell number to verify your residency.

NPO in the Netherlands no longer opens up the livestreams on NPO Start, they just direct international viewers to the BVN website. The North American/Caribbean satellite feed is on a delay, but the stream on BVN's website is the live European feed.

 

[Jim S.]

Confirming that the American beam of BVN is indeed airing it at 8PM EDT (20:00 UTC-4), as in the past. I don't know why their website no longer provides a proper schedule for this version of their channel. I thought it used to have its own page.

BVN has the better picture quality by far compared to RTPI. RTPI may have a sharper static picture, but they have noticeable motion breakup. I've hardly seen any compression artifacts on BVN, even though the picture is a bit soft (being only 480 lines) on a large screen. I remember some years ago, before they went widescreen, RTPI had the sharper picture, and BVN had issues with motion.

 

[N5XZS]

Does RTE player use Chromecast? Just curious.

TNX!

 

[cyberham]

Was going to compare BVN with RTPI now. But it's not playing on RTPI on 97W. The video there is 544x480 (2.7 Mbps). Whereas BVN on 117W is playing Eurovision now with 720x480 (3.1 Mbps).

 

[KyL416]

RTP Internacional's American feed carried Eurovision live at 3pm ET


RTE Player does support chromecast via their Android app.

 

[kofi123]

During the first semifinal, I confirmed the following broadcasters had no geoblocks on their streams of the contest. Denmark is the best if you want the highest bit rate video, Ireland if you want English commentary. None of these required registration to view live video.

• Armenia AMPTV 1080p @ 3.5 Mbps
• Cyprus RIK through RIK Sat upconverted 720p @ 2.3 Mbps (note that their website often crashes during the contest)
• Denmark DR 1080p @ 8 Mbps
• Finland Yle 1080p @ 6.3 Mbps
• Germany through eurovision.de 1080p, didn't get the bit rate
• Ireland RTE 1080p @ 6 Mbps with DRM
• Luxembourg RTL 1080p @ 6.4 Mbps (only the Luxembourgish feed was unblocked, the French and English commentary feeds were geoblocked)
• Malta TVM 720p @ 1.7 Mbps (Malta's broadcasts have no commentators)
• Moldova TRM 1080p @ 4.5 Mbps
• Netherlands AVROTROS/NPO through BVN 560p @ 2 Mbps with DRM
• Norway NRK 1080p @ 4.5 Mbps
• Slovenia RTVSLO 1080p @ 6 Mbps
• Sweden SVT 720p @ 5.8 Mbps

Confirmed geoblocked streams included Estonia's ETV (Estonian) and ETV+ (Russian), Iceland's RUV, Italy's Rai, and, of course, BBC iPlayer.

 

[KyL416]

Iceland's RUV was streaming it worldwide. They use a seperate stream URL for international viewers.

Austria's ORF was streaming it worldwide.

Portugal's RTP was streaming it worldwide on both their RTP Internacional stream and their domestic stream

Belgium's RTBF (French) was streaming it worldwide, VRT (Flemish/Dutch) was geoblocked.

Spain's TVE stream was geoblocked, but TVE Internacional America carried it live

France Television was geoblocked, and TV5 Monde USA doesn't air it.

All 3 Swiss broadcasters were geoblocked

For the Netherlands, in addition to BVN's stream, you'll also be able to get the commentary for the second semi-final and the grand final on NPO Radio 2's visual radio stream

 

[cyberham]

Finals now on RTPI on 97W Ku.