Picture credits: © EBU / Sarah Louise Bennett The RAI 2’s broadcast during the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) 2024 caused a stir. At the end, the results of the public televote from Italy were shown, which goes against the rules.
This Friday, the country’s public broadcaster issued a statement to explain the situation, stating that the results are partial and were revealed due to a technical error:
– In regards to the publication of the results of the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, in the credits of this semi-final, RAI specifies that this was a technical glitch as a result of which some data – completely partial – of the Italian national vote were mistakenly highlighted in the graphics”.
Despite acknowledging that the rules prevent showing results at this time, RAI assured that they have already spoken with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU): “These results, according to the rules of the 68th Eurovision Song Contest, can only be made public after the final night. RAI promptly apologized to the EBU management and believes that this inconvenience does not affect the regularity of the final result. The published rankings are, in fact, incomplete. In any case, RAI has already spoken with the EBU, confirming its commitment to fully comply with all rules for the rest of the event”.
The EBU also responded in a statement, deferring further investigations until after the ESC: “The European Broadcasting Union has investigated this matter with RAI and its televote partner and can confirm that the information was published in error. We can also confirm that the information was incomplete. A valid vote was received from Italy as part of the semi-final results. RAI was informed that this was in breach of the Contest rules, which state that the voting results can only be communicated after the event. The matter will be further discussed with the Reference Group of the Contest after the Contest. We have requested RAI to review its procedures to ensure that all rules and protocols are followed to protect the integrity of the voting”.
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