Bulgaria will not participate in Eurovision 2019

The Managеment Board of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) decided that the public service broadcaster will not participate in this year's Eurovision Song Contest, which will be held in mid-May 2019 in Tel Aviv. The decision is part of the measures that the broadcaster’s management has undertaken to optimise public spending.

For the past two years BNT organised the Bulgarian participation in the international competition with the support of partners - production companies or professional teams who also participated in the funding. Notwithstanding, the cost of preparing the Bulgarian participant, creating and producing a song, stage performance, producing a TV clip, and inclusion in the events of the contest's programme significantly exceed the reasonable costs that public service broadcaster could afford.

In addition to the direct costs of preparing the relevant representative, participating countries also share part of the cost of the competition itself, which this year amounts to EUR 5,300,000.

There are 73 companies from 56 countries in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East in the European Broadcasting Union. Each of the public operators takes their own independent decision to participate in the competition for each individual edition.