Vienna runs the 70th Eurovision Song Contest at the Wiener Stadthalle on May 12, 14, and 16 — semis Tuesday and Thursday, Grand Final Saturday, all 21:00 CEST — with 35 countries competing, five short of last year after Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain pulled out over Israel's participation. [1] [2] Austria, France, Germany, Italy, and the U.K. are pre-qualified. [2]

The paper's May 7 brief on the public-broadcaster economics frame named the structural lens — one of the last European cultural products that runs on tax-financed broadcasters rather than streaming subscribers — and T-8 is when the anniversary edition starts running it under JJ's "Wasted Love" closing slot, with hosts Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski fronting an ORF production that includes a 70-piece choir tribute and the first U.S. YouTube live stream in nearly a decade. [3]

The Asian expansion to Bangkok in November is the franchise's bet that the Vienna anniversary holds the model long enough to export it. [3] If five-Big-Five-country withdrawal — including Spain — does not produce a vote-rigging incident the boycotters can point to, the public-broadcaster argument carries to Bangkok.

-- CHARLES ASHFORD, London