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Aust'n broadcaster planning an annual "Eurovision Asia" song contest

Xinhua, March 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

A major Australian television network is planning to produce an Asia-Pacific version of the popular Eurovision song contest, inviting countries from around the region to participate in an annual music extravaganza.

The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), an Australian government-run media organization, announced on Tuesday that it had secured exclusive rights to stage a Eurovision contest in Asia and Oceania.

"Eurovision Asia," which would pit around 20 countries from the two continents against each other, could be up and running as early as 2017, the SBS statement said.

The plan would be to hold the inaugural Eurovision Asia in Australia, before shipping it out to other competitor nations willing to host the show.

Eurovision, or the European Song Contest (ESC) as it's officially known, is the longest-running TV song contest in the world. Last year's grand final in Vienna, Austria was watched by almost 200 million people.

Over ESC's 60-year history, only European acts have been allowed to compete, until 2015 when Australia was accepted to make its Eurovision debut. Due to the popularity of its appearance, Australia has confirmed it would take part in the show for a second time, when it travels to the Swedish capital of Stockholm in May.

SBS, with the help of local broadcasters, is hoping to garner an even bigger audience for Eurovision Asia than the traditional show, given Asia makes up more than half of the world's population.

Blink TV, SBS's production partner for Eurovision, has teamed up with the network for the venture.

Paul Clark, director of Blink TV, believes the show could capture the attention of the entire region, and has the potential to draw an audience in excess of 1 billion people.

"Asia has an astonishing set of musical and visual cultures, and it will make for brilliant television," Clark said in the SBS statement.

"Imagine the musical virtuosity of Bollywood, the cutting edge of K-pop, and the excitement of Chinese and Japanese artists -- now the biggest music consumers in the world ... it's a thrilling idea." Endit