SATURDAYS HAVE become the worst nights on television with nothing worth watching but at least this week we can look forward to that annual rite, the Eurovision Song Contest. Most people might consider it terribly pass’e but you’d be surprised how many viewers do tune in anyway. The contest has changed and improved over the years, the songs might be as forgettable as ever but there is audience participation now with telephone voting in most countries instead of those anonymous juries we accused or suspected of political and cultural bias. The monopoly of the half dozen countries who always used to win has been broken by the former East European countries who are not only eager to participate but to put on great shows as we saw in Tallinn last year. A refreshing change from some winning countries in the past who seemed to actively resent the fact that they had to host the event “yet again” and invested little planning or imagination into the night itself. Most important of all, of course, the entries are now in English, the international language of pop, so everyone can at least understand the words and people no longer vote in language blocs.
If the twelve points from Cyprus to Greece and vice versa used to raise a laugh (or booing in some cases) from the audience, so did the high points given by the Scandinavians to each other. Cyprus will probably give Greece top points as usual this year but then Manto’s song has had maximum exposure not only on CyBC but the commercial channels as well. Though one has to say CyBC as the participating broadcaster has been more than fair screening all entries over and over again as well as showcasing some of this year’s singers on its Efharisto Savvatovrado variety programme. It seems to be CyBC’s week for once, even if it is a brief (and probably final) flash in the pan. Besides the song contest the station will also be screening the Champions League climactic match live on Wednesday, which should improve its AGB ratings no end.
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Minister Wieczorek-Zeus plays a very important role in the relationship that the World Bank enjoys with Germany. I am delighted to have had the opportunity to meet with her again. We have had, and continue to have, a deep and long-standing association, in which we both share common perspectives, and in which her department and my colleagues in the Bank work effectively together in our common fight ...
After that, who knows when the corporation will be able to attract a reasonable proportion of viewers again because it has lost its important football card to LTV which has won the screening rights to Champions League as from next season. Hopefully the management has already put on its thinking caps because that loss is going to leave some massive gaps to fill in come next September and the schedulers won’t really be able to fudge around making do with figure skating, rhythmic gymnastics, athletics and various EBU sponsored contests and events for nine months until the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. As for Olympics coverage, it might not even put the corporation into the black again (if anything ever could) because Cypriots will be able to watch the events direct from the newly launched Hellas Sat for the price of a relatively small communications dish. At least that’s the impression I got from the rather guarded comments by the experts when they were discussing the advantages of the satellite. All that is in the future, we still have to live through another summer of endless repeats (on all channels), spiced up by fascinating local events like public rows between the church hierarchy and politicians trying to guess what to do next about the Cyprus Problem.
Time for me to take a break and pass over the column and film reviews to Athena Kars era for three weeks with the hope that I will feel less jaded or the television scene has miraculously improved by the time I return.
