Eurovision 2009 Moscow Final Was The Most Expensive In History

Posted by Italo on Feb 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment

The final show of Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow (Russia) was probably the most costly event in Russian show-biz in 2009, the total sum of money spent by Russia being debated until now. There is information that the amount exceeded $45 million, of which $33 mln (or 1 billion rubles) were given by the RF Government, $6.6 mln (or 200 mln rubles) – by the Government of Moscow city, and about $6 mln – by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The expenses of the First Channel, a TV-channel that broadcasted the show, are unrevealed, as well as the amounts of sponsor contracts, among which there are Raiffeisenbank, Schwarzkopf, Pepsi and Rostelecom; these expenses were never taken into account in the sum total. At the same time, there is information that the budget of the contest was $42 mln, and the share of the First Channel accounted for about one third of the sum.

Anyway, the final show of Eurovision in Moscow became an absolute record-breaker as of expenditures, being far ahead the Greeks who spent €12 mln in 2006, and the Serbians who made it with €9.3 mln. The expenditures were mainly attributed to construction of the stage, -the largest one in the history of the contest, as well as to lease of Olympiysky sport complex, advertising, transportation, and escorting of delegacies. In particular, the director general of the First Channel, Konstantin Ernst boasted that they rented all LED screens available in Western Europe. From the very beginning the organizers considered the final show of the contest as unprofitable; they just couldn’t expect to win away at least some part of the expenses ’cause a good half of the tickets to Olympiysky turned out to have been distributed for free.

The final show of Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow became an absolute record-breaker as of expenditures - exceeded $45 million

The public opinion about the expenditures was mostly negative (over 39% of 1,200 Russians polled by Online Market Intelligence responded negatively). Experts, too, tell that the organizers could make a proper final show in Moscow for as little as $10 mln. However, everybody agreed that the Moscow show had politics behind it, and was another great occasion to work at a positive image of Russia. So they spared neither expense, nor time of high-ranking persons: Vladimir Putin (the Prime Minister of Russia) visited rehearsals of the show, and Yuri Luzhkov (the mayor of Moscow city) gave a speech on the opening day. In follow-up of the final show of Eurovision Song Contest some organizers, including Konstantin Ernst, got letters of award from Dmitriy Medvedev, the President of Russia.