EUROVISION ORGANISERS ARE working on a change to the audience voting system that could help to limit the influence of campaigns that interfere with the results.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has been considering a switch to online voting instead of the traditional telephone and text message options.

The move, which was first reported by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, comes after a report last year found that an Israeli government agency paid for adverts targeting the Eurovision public vote. 

In the wake of the 2025 contest, the director of the Eurovision said it would “look at the promotion of acts by their delegations” to ensure “such promotion is not disproportionately affecting” the audience voting.

Organisers said at the time that voting rules for the song contest would be “majorly overhauled”.

In a statement today to The Journal, the EBU said: “We can confirm that we have begun investigating a move to wholly online audience voting for the Eurovision Song Contest and more details will be announced in the months ahead.”

Aftonbladet reports that an internal letter sent by the EBU to member broadcasters says it hopes the changes will “increase engagement and willingness to vote and help dilute the effect of mobilised bloc voting, without compromising fairness or trust”.

The change could also require voters to cast a vote for more than just one entry, which could mean voting for their top three favourite acts.

Earlier this week, the EBU announced that a winning Eurovision country will no longer be allowed to host the contest the following year if an armed conflict or a “sensitive” geopolitical situation is affecting their state or neighbouring countries.

The host country rule change followed years of mounting criticism over Israel’s participation in the contest, which prompted several countries, including Ireland, to choose not to participate this year in protest.

Ordinarily, the host of a given year’s contest is the country that won the year before.

When Ukraine won in 2022, it wasn’t allowed to host the next year due to security concerns caused by Russia’s invasion, with the 2023 contest instead hosted by the UK in Liverpool.

Now, with the change announced this week, any country will be ineligible if “an armed conflict, a sensitive geopolitical situation, or any other situation materially affects the security, safety or stability of their state or immediate region”.

If such a situation arises, the EBU will commission an independent security assessment and consult a reference group to determine whether or not the winner can safely host the contest.

If not, the EBU will choose a different location to host the following year.

Israel came close to winning this year’s contest, ending in second place – raising concerns about what would happen if they won the contest with the expectation of hosting despite perpetuating ongoing violence in both Gaza and the West Bank.

Over the previous two years, an Israeli government agency spent at least $1 million on promotional campaigns linked to Eurovision voting, according to reporting by the New York Times.

For the 2026 contest, the Eurovision reduced the number of votes a person could cast ‘per payment method’ from 20 down to 10. Kevin Cunningham, founder of the Ireland Thinks polling company, said the reduction in the number of votes a person could cast could have some impact, but that it would be ‘marginal’.

After last year’s contest, Rob Lilley-Jones of the Eurotrip Eurovision podcast said the result did suggest the reduction in permitted votes had some impact, but that the voting system was still flawed.

“Israel finished third in the public vote, having won it by a distance last year,” Lilley-Jones said.

“The difference this year was their song performed better with jury voters, meaning that despite finishing third in the public vote, their score was high enough to see them in the end-of-contest split screen once again.

“From my point of view, the fact viewers – or anyone with a link to the Eurovision voting site – can vote ten times still allows those looking to coordinate a sustained campaign to support a certain song to manipulate the scoring and consequently the results.”