Eurovision wants to break participation records for its 70th anniversary, which will be celebrated in Vienna next May. The Austrian public television ORF and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) have jointly tried to mitigate the reputational and economic damage caused by the withdrawal of five countries, including Spain, due to Israel’s participation in the competition. However, neither the secret negotiations nor the return of Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania They were able to cover up the deep crisis facing the competition, which is celebrating its seventieth edition with the lowest number of participants since 2004.
As the EBU announced this Monday, December 15th, in a year, 35 countries will finally take part in the festival crucial for your future. This number represents a historical minimum, as it is one television fewer than the participants in Istanbul 2004, the first year Eurovision introduced the semi-finals.
The crisis surrounding Israel’s participation will not only affect the list of countries, but will also be an economic and economic blow to the festival. And the 2026 edition will be marked by the absence of Spain, one of the Big Five that contributes the most to the EBU’s coffers. RTVE is also one of the networks that brings the most viewers to the event each year. In 2025 there was more to see in the grand finale on Saturday alone 13.6 million viewers unique in La 1.
After announcing its withdrawal from the festival, RTVE confirmed that it will also not broadcast the galas of the next edition of the competition, giving up its most-watched non-sporting event of the year. This will likely be reflected in the overall scope of the competition, which also does not include the participation ofe Slovenia, Ireland, Iceland and the Netherlandsalthough the latter is where the galas are broadcast.
As the EBU confirmed this Monday, this will finally be the case 35 countries Who will take part in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026, represented by their respective public television channels:
- Albania (RTSH)
- Armenia (AMPTV)
- Australia (SBS)
- Austria (ORF)
- Azerbaijan (İctimai)
- Belgium (RTBF)
- Bulgaria (BNT)
- Croatia (HRT)
- Cyprus (CyBC)
- Czech Republic (ČT)
- Denmark (DR)
- Estonia (ERR)
- Finland (YLE)
- France (FT)
- Georgia (GPB)
- Germany (ARD/SWR)
- Greece (ERT)
- Israel (Khan)
- Italy (RAI)
- Latvia (LSM)
- Lithuania (LRT)
- Luxembourg (RTL)
- Malta (PBS)
- Moldova (TRM)
- Montenegro (RTCG)
- Romania (TVR)
- Norway (NRK)
- Poland (TVP)
- Portugal (RTP)
- San Marino (SMRTV)
- Serbia (RTS)
- Sweden (SVT)
- Switzerland (SRG SSR)
- Ukraine (Suspilne)
- United Kingdom (BBC)
The number of Eurovision 2026 countries is therefore far from the record that ORF was aiming for for this anniversary. Roland Weissman, general manager of Host Television, had expressed his desire to receive a list 44 participantsannounced talks with the most critical television channels to persuade them to withdraw from the competition. However, the president of RTVE, José Pablo López, denied these negotiations and assured that no one had contacted the Spanish public broadcaster.
During this time, the EBU teamed up with Austrian television to force the return of countries that had withdrawn from the festival for economic reasons, and to pave the way for Canada’s Eurovision debut, which was ultimately scrapped due to the high costs it entailed for the CBC. After all, not even the return of Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania could cover up the deep crisis of an event that was born with the idea of the unification of Europe and which today is nothing more than a reflection of it deep political division of the continent.
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