As the winner from Eurovision in Helsinki became Serbia, planning is already underway to satisfy the European Broadcasting Union that RTS can host the 2008 contest. In the next two weeks a committee will be formed.Already one venue is being tipped as a likely choice for the show.

The Belgrade Arena opened in 2004 and is currently the largest undercover hall in Europe. It can hold up to 23,000 people, though the configuration for Eurovision is likely to mean slightly fewer tickets than that will be on sale. Already the director of the arena has said he would welcome the event if chosen as the host venue.

RTS director Alexandar Tijanic voiced concerns however about the needs for financial help from both the Serbian government and the city of Belgrade. The TV signal produced by RTS is not yet High Definition (HD) and so investment must be made into the Tv infrastructure to ensure this is upgraded before the contest takes place next year.The main issue is the lack of high quality hotel rooms. Belgrade needs to invest heavily to improve its hotel capacity to be able to play host to the participants and journalists.

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As we all know up to now there are several countries that are recognized as part of the finalists… These are Serbia, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. Then it was pronounced that there will be two semi-finals held simultaneously on Thursday, 22^nd May 2008 in Belgrade.

 The semi-finalist are already known but still haven’t pronounced the time of their Junior Eurovision Contest. Here I can show you a list of the dates when the finals of the particular country will be held.

Albania – 16^th December 2007

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As the European Song Contest – Eurovision 2008 is coming, I would like to tell you some information about the countries that will participate.

According to the rules of the contest there are some countries that are already given places for the final. As the results of Eurovision Contest in Helsinki 2007 are already known and according to the rules, the top ten countries that gained the best score from last year automatically participate in the final. These countries are Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.

There are another four countries that are known as finalists although they have not shown their best in Eurovision 2007. These are countries that have contributed large amounts of money and are really active as the European Broadcasting Union is concerned. These countries are – Germany, Spain, France and the United Kingdom also.

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This time of the year is time when thousands of people ask about tickets for the most important European song contest – Eurovision 2008.

But unfortunately there are no details about tickets sale yet… Usually they are sold by the broadcaster. The European Broadcasting Union decided that the tickets will be handled by the host broadcaster.

The most sure information is that tickets will surely be expensive. Probably you will have to pay about 250 to 300 Euros for the best seats in Beogradska Arena, this price is a possible one about the final. Maybe you can find cheaper ones for the two semi-finals. There are lots of possibilities for buying ticket – via internet, by phone calls and make reservations for tickets with your credit card for example.

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San Marino is a microstate and is possibly entering the contest for the first time this year.

But this can change for the next several years as the Sammarinese Broadcaster has entered the European Broadcaster Union and they are thinking of entering the contest. They considered joining in 2007, but some of their Italian stakeholders didn’t support the idea. In a year now they seem to have changed their minds and now San Marino is a possible entrant for the Europe’s favourite song contest Eurovision 2008.

San Marino is a small country located near Italy and is known as the oldest republic. Although San Marino is a microstate it won’t be a problem for them to participate in Eurovision 2008. The history shows that there are other microstates that have already won the contest such as Monaco in 1971.

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The location of Eurovision Song Contest 2008 is already known. As the host this year is Serbia and the capital Belgrade the happening will be at Beogradska Arena (Belgrade Arena).

Beogradska Arena is one of the European biggest halls that has a capacity of twenty thousands seats for the spectators. This hall is highly developed on a technological level. Vlado Slavica, the head architect, designed the arena at over 48 thousand square meters in six floors.

Beogradska arena has luxury areas, VIP places and those for the regular visitors. In the 68 luxury area there are 768. As the Eurovision 2008 contest is coming all these areas are pre-built so that there can be an interview area and television link too. The press centre can hold up to 250 journalists and by the expectations it should be bigger. There is a possibility to build another press centre at the car park, which would be similar to that built in Kiev 2005.

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For Eurovision 2008 contest the EBU and P&G have done a partnership as they will be the official partners of the contest.

The P&G brand  - Wella has been pronounced as an official partner for Eurovision 2008.  The company is one of the leaders hair care brand and is known in over 140 countries. Advices from Wella experts will be in great help to the contest participants. The brand really fits with the contest’s glamour. The hair-designs and make up zone will be the official rights of Wella during the contest.

The agreement is a part of the Eurovision marketing platform. P&G has accepted the agreement because of the rich tradition and heritage of the Eurovision Song contest. The negotiation was done by T.E.A.M. – the Television Event and Media Marketing AG.

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The European Broadcasting Union was firstly established on the 12^th February 1950. It was created by twenty-three broadcasting organizations from Europe on an annual meeting in England.

Since now the EBU has a list of seventy-five members from countries all around Europe and forty-three associates also. These members are usually broadcasters owned from the government or private channels with public mission.

Nowadays the EBU members are broadcasters not only from Europe but from Canada, Japan, India, Mexico and many others. But the so called ‘active members’ are broadcasters from countries members of the Council of Europe.

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This year for the first time in Eurovision Song Contest there will be held two semi-finals.

This decision was taken on the meeting of the committee of the European Broadcasting Union in the end of September. The proposal for two semi-finals came from the Reference Group of the contest.

It is known that the host – Serbia, Germany, Spain, France and the United Kingdom are the countries that go straight to the final. The other countries that are known as participant of the contest will be divided in two semi-final groups.

The Committee of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said that their decision was taken because of the stability of the contest. When dividing the semi-finals into two events the final of the contest will be more interesting and as a whole the contest will be flexible.

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As the Eurovision 2008 contest is coming and lots of fans are waiting for the participants to be known, there is one thing we usually think of… the tickets for the contest.

After making some researches I found out that in several countries the tickets for the semi-finals are already sold and in others it hasn’t been announced that tickets are going to be sold yet.

In most of the countries you can buy only tickets for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest which is individual for all participating countries.

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Serbian tennis player Anna Ivanovich is thinking over the proposition of the General Manager of the Eurovision broadcaster to be the general conductive of the contest.

It is a great honour for Anna to be the conductive of the contest, said her father, who is also her manager. After finishing her participation in US Open, she will be able to think over the proposition of the head manager Aleksandar Tijanic. According to Mr. Tijanic, Anna is the most suitable person for a conductive of the show, that will be held at Belgrade Arena. She will be the representative of Serbia as she is a charming young lady, said Mr. Tijanic. His idea was of inviting someone who is well-know all around the world.

Although the semi-finals and the great final of the contest are in May, and the championship Rolan Gaross is starting then where Anna become a finalist. Anna is announced as the most beautiful tennis players, and being a conductive of this celebrated contest is the best she can do fo her country, despite the tennis…

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Palestinian National TV channel get the greatest support from the president Mahmud Abas to take part in the campaign for Eurovision 2008 contest. The Palestinian Autonomy is doing their best so that they can take part in Eurovision 2008.

The participation of Palestine in the contest is done so that everyone from the European countries know that Palestine is an autonomy, although still not country.

The Palestinian national TV channel needs permission from European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to be a broadcaster. They have already asked for a membership in EBU. They have to approve among other TV channels, known as broadcasters too.

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