Asia-Pacific Eurovision still “a work in progress.”

At its 2017 Upfronts this week, SBS neglected to detail plans for an Asia Pacific Eurovision event.

In March SBS announced a regional event with up to 20 countries would take place in 2017.

At the Screen Forever conference I asked SBS Managing Director Michael Ebeid to update me.

“It’s a big, ambitious plan. We’re still working on it to be honest. We’re talking to a whole range of broadcasters, about a dozen countries,” he said.

“Getting everybody on board as you can imagine is not an easy job and the politics of that etcetera….

“We’ve had great support from the government writing letters of support to other various governments to encourage their public broadcasters to get involved. So we’re a little way off making any sort of announcement on that. It’s still very much a work in progress, I’m afraid.”

The European Broadcasting Union previously licensed rights for an Asia Pacific Contest for an event in Macau, then Mumbai in 2010, including with an Australian entry from SBS. But the event was never realised.

Hopefully a third event doesn’t miss yet another delivery.

“I would have loved to have been able to have included it in our Upfronts and say we’re definitely doing it in ’17, but it’s very much a work in progress,” said Ebeid.