ESC
Swiss fight profiteering with ESC tickets
The shows at the Eurovision Song Contest are in demand. That’s why businessmen hope to make quick money by buying up lots of tickets. The Swiss make their lives difficult as best they can.
Before the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), unknown profiteers are obviously trying to make money with tickets bought in bulk. When pre-registering to purchase tickets for the shows in Basel next May, hundreds of thousands of “fake accounts” were used: those that cannot be assigned to a real person. The ESC’s marketing director, Thomas Pittino, told the Swiss media company SRF.
A total of almost 500,000 registrations were received. However, there are only around 50,000 to 60,000 seats available for visitors at the nine planned shows. “You have to assume that between a third and half of the registrations are so-called bots, i.e. fake accounts,” said Pittino. These would now be filtered out.
Registration expired on January 10th. Anyone who is successfully registered can buy the first tickets on January 29th from 10 a.m. They cost between 40 francs and 350 francs (around 42.50 euros to 373 euros).
The SRF is organizing the song competition this year because the act Nemo won for Switzerland last year. According to current status, 38 countries are taking part, including Germany. The final will take place on May 17th almost directly on the German border in the St. Jakobshalle in Basel.
dpa
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
