Educate, Entertain, Inform, Eurovision
In the run up to the Eurovision Song Contest, Jon Jacob asked me if I could write a piece for ‘About the BBC’, a blog that “explains what the BBC does and how it works.” Beyond the obvious three hours of Saturday telly, what else does the Contest offer the broadcaster?
t’s subtle, but I reckon the Eurovision Song Contest hits the three original tenets of the BBC – to educate, to inform, and to entertain. The Eurovision provides one way of looking at population movements across Europe via the often commented on voting process. Is there any other mainstream programme where you can hear so much local music from other cultures? And when a live show brings in millions of viewers across a continent throughout a three hour spectacular (and even more come in from the iPlayer and time-shifted recorded versions), can there be any doubt that is entertaining?
