Ukraine’s national broadcaster UA:PBC and a commercial broadcaster STB have extended their contract regarding Eurovision, and thus “Vidbir” will be their selection process in the following three years as well.

Since Ukraine came back to the Contest in 2016, “Vidbir” was organized by STB. The two broadcasters signed an extension agreement, stating that “Vidbir” will be their joint project in the following three years as well (including 2021). Preparations for the 2019 “Vidbir” have already started, and the Producer of the show will once again be Ruslan Kvinta.

Vladimir Borodyanskiy, the Head of STB stated:

Three years ago we started our cooperation with UA:PBC, and the STB channel set itself the goal of creating a mega-show. And we succeeded, because in three years the stage of the national selection has showed a lot of new names to the public, gave a successful start to many young artists, and the selection itself became the main musical event of the year. It attracted the attention of successful producers and sponsors. This is a very decent result we are proud of. Therefore, we want to continue our cooperation with UA:PBC, focusing on production and creating what STB can do best – large-scale television events, which is now our national selection for Eurovision.

In the past three years, STB assumed all the costs of organizing, conducting and broadcasting live shows of the national selections. Also, on its own initiative, STB offered the winner of the national selection a number of additional bonuses in the form of financial support for the preparation and travel to the Contest. In 2018, for the first time in the history of Ukraine’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, two broadcasts were broadcasting the main show.

Zurab Alasaniya, the Head of UA:PBC stated:

Taking into account the experience of previous years, we are happy to continue our cooperation with STB, as they are confident that Ukraine will be represented in the best way. Young artists will receive a rating platform, spectators will be satisfied with high-quality shows, and voting for a representative of Ukraine will be honest and open. The youngest European public broadcaster that is in a state of transformation and under conditions of 50% under-funding, but we believe that our cooperation with the commercial channel of the Eurovision project is economically feasible. On our own, we can not provide such a high quality national selection as STB can.

All expenses for the TV part of the national selection will be covered by STB in the next three years as well.

The two semi finals of “Vidbir” 2019 will be held on the 9th and 16th of February with the Grand Final on the 23rd, and all shows will be broadcast both on STB and UA:PBC. The jury is yet to be selected and announced, and the acts are yet to be selected. Stay tuned to ESCBubble for more information to come.