Country Contest Union

Country Contest Union
Syndicat du concours national

Formation	12 February 2010; 7 years ago
Dissolved	31 May 2018; temporarily
Type	Union of broadcasting organisations
Headquarters	Tel Aviv, Israel
Membership	75 active members (from 59 countries)
Official language	English, French
Owner	ETV Worldwide (2017–2018)
President	Tyron Ferrer (2012–2018) Elayne Harpaz (2010–2011)

Leadership

Elayne Harpaz served as the president from the Country Contest Union's creation in 2010 up to 2011. As the Union became international, Harpaz announced that she would step down from her role and "move on to other things." As such, Tyron Ferrer was announced as her successor through the international fame of the Union. Ferrer announced on 31 May 2018 that he would step down from his role as the President of the Union, which was followed by several employees. However, the CCU stated that such moves were "voluntary" and not from "anything behind the scenes." The resignations caused a controversy in the Union followed by financial issues which put all of the Union's projects in hiatus, as the issues were said to be "sorted behind the scenes." Despite these issues, the CCU still announced the creation of a project whilst sorting out these issues. Additionally, the Union was said to be seeking Sponsors for its Events to prevent any future financial hurdles, rumored as the reason for the resignations. Additionally, the Union stated that an announcement on the succeeding President would be made in "coming months", officially putting all of its events on a months-long hiatus. ETV Worldwide also announced on 19 June 2018 that it would drop out of its ownership of the Union, therefore removing a big asset and sponsor. The Union later saw offers from several high-profile companies offering to purchase, sponsor, etc. the Union. The Union stated on Twitter that, "We are in the midst of electing a new President, who will not only be a financial asset but also creative, for the sake of the future of the Union. Offers from third-party Companies will continue to be considered[/accepted] during this time. As of now, the Union will stop using its social media."

As of 19 April 2024, indexes consider the Country Contest Union "temporarily dissolved", while the issues are being sorted.

Active members

Table key

     Annulled member (Kamu Birliği)

Country	Broadcaster	Year
Albania	RTSH	1999
Algeria	ENTV ENRS TDA	1970
Andorra	RTVA	2002
Armenia	AMPTV	2005
Australia	SBS	2017
Austria	ORF	1953
Azerbaijan	İCTI/İTV	2007
Belarus	BTRC	1993
Belgium	VRT RTBF	1950
Bosnia–Herzegovina	BHRT	1993
Bulgaria	BNR	1993
	BNT	1993
Croatia	HRT	1993
Cyprus	CYBC	1969
Czech Republic	ČR	1994
	ČT	1994
Denmark	DR	1950
	DK/TV2	1989
Egypt	ERTU	1985
Estonia	ERR	1993
Finland	YLE	1950
	FI/MTV	1993
France	GRF	1950
	E1	1978
Georgia	GPB	2005
Germany	ARD	1952
	ZDF	1963
Greece	ERT	1950
Hungary	HMG	2014
Iceland	RÚV	1956
Ireland	RTÉ	1950
	TG4	2007
Italy	RAI	1950
Jordan	JRTV	1970
Kazakhstan	KA	2016
Kosovo	RTK	2008
Latvia	LTV	1993
	LR	1993
Lebanon	TL	1950
Libya	LNC	2011
Liechtenstein	1FLTV	2009
Lithuania	LRT	1993
Luxembourg	CLT	1950
	ERSL	1996
Macedonia	MKRTV	1993
Malta	PBS	1970
Moldova	TRM	1993
Monaco	GRMC	1950
Montenegro	RTCG	2006
Morocco	SNRT	1950
Netherlands	NPO	1950
Norway	NRK	1950
	NO/TV2	1993
Poland	PRT	1993
Portugal	RTP	1950
Romania	ROR	1993
	RO/TVR	1993
Russia	C1R	1996
	RTR	1993
	RDO	1996
San Marino	SMRTV	1995
Serbia	RTS	2006
Slovakia	RTVS	2011
Slovenia	RTVSLO	1993
Spain	RTVE	1955
	SER	1982
	COPE	1998
Sweden	STR	1950
	SE/TV4	2004
Switzerland	SRG SSR	1950
Tunisia	RTTT	1950
Turkey	TRT	1950
Ukraine	UA:PBC	1993
United Kingdom	BBC	1950
	UKIB	1960
Vatican City	RV	1950

Pending members

The regulations of the Union allow entities/broadcasters to submit applications to the Union up to three times per year, should one be rejected.

The CCU announced that the Top Four countries of the Country Contest 10 who were not a regular member of the Union would be upgraded to one so. However, the process was delayed and the CCU later stated that they would become Council Associate Members; the highest possible rank for none-CCU members.

Liberland

On 6 June 2016, LBTV sent its application for Liberland to join the Country Contest Union. However, the CCU rejected LBTV's application on 27 June stating that, "For Liberland to be able to join the CCU and therefore compete in the Country Contest, it would require an agreement from both Serbia and Croatia allowing Liberland to participate. Otherwise, it is not possible in respect to the Member Countries of the Union." The broadcaster Liberland Television (LBTV) went defunct months later, leaving Liberland with no broadcaster for months.

On May 22, 2017, Liberland's new television broadcaster LTC submitted its application to the CCU with testimonies from several Croatian authorities. On June 12, 2017, the CCU rejected the application saying that "it wasn't valid" and that "the authorization must be from the governments themselves." LTC later announced that they would send representatives in the Fall of 2017 to Serbia and Croatia in hopes of being authorized.

On September 25, 2017, over four months after LTC's first application, the broadcaster sent its second with the approval of both Croatia and Serbia. Over one month later, on October 30, 2017, CCU announced the approval of the LTC's application making Liberland the newest addition to the Union. However, the decision was criticized by many, stating that the only reason for Croatia and Serbia's approval would be for "an exchange in points" between the countries, noting that they did not allow Liberland to become independent.

Catalonia

On October 27, 2017, the Catalan Republic's broadcaster TVC sent an application to join the CCU. Three days later, on October 30, 2017, the CCU rejected TVC's application stating that "Catalonia cannot become a member without explicit permission from Spain itself."

Israel

After IBA went defunct, IPBC sent its application to join the CCU on 29 May 2017. The CCU stated on 16 June 2017 that the process of evaluating the application could take up to a year due to some issues, and that as such should be patient.

Scotland

In 2017, Scotland's STV sent an application to join the Union given the absence of UK in the Country Contest and will to participate as an independent entity. The CCU rejected STV's application one month later, stating that "STV must earn the explicit permission from the British government to join independently." Following the statement, STV stated that they would no longer pursue joining the Union.

Months after STV's lost-interest, BBC Scotland announced that it would go forward with plans to join the Union and stated that it was in talks with the Government.

United States

Following ETV's decision to purchase the Union, American broadcaster ETV became a Council Associate Member.

2016-17 applications

Country	Broadcaster	Year	Result
Australia	SBS	2017	Council
Brazil	RC	2017	Council
Catalonia	TVC	2017	Rejected
Colombia	RTVC SMP	2017	Council
Israel	IPBC	2017	Pending
Liberland	LBTV	2016	Rejected
	LTC	2017	Rejected
			Accepted
Scotland	STV	2017	Rejected
	BBC Scotland		Pending
South Africa	SABC	2017	Council
United States	ETV	2017	Council

2018 applications

Country	Broadcaster	Year	Result
TBA

Organised events

The CCU in co-operation with the respective host broadcaster, organises competitions and events in which its Members can participate, if they wish to do so. These include:

Summary

Event	Start date	Status	Editions	CCU
Current events
Country Contest	13 January 2015	In hiatus	18	Yes
Country Model Contest	9 June 2017	In hiatus	6	Yes
Retrica Song Contest	8 July 2017	In hiatus	2	Yes
Country Games	6 October 2017	In hiatus	1	Yes
Upcoming events
Untitled interactive TV series	Late 2018	In development	0	Yes
Untitled RTK spin-off	2019	In development	0	No
Country Cup	2018	In development	0	Yes

Country Contest

Main article: Country Contest

See also: List of countries in the Country Contest

The Country Contest is an annual international country competition, that was first held in Tel Aviv, Israel in 2015. To date, eight contests of the competition took place with the amount of participants growing each edition. In the 10th edition, the CCU invited associate members making the participating countries amount to 58; the record.

Country Model Contest

Main article: Country Model Contest

The CCU announced in June 2017 that they were creating a new contest, which will have Europe voting for their favorite participating models. The first edition took place on 9 June 2017, with 12 countries competing. The current contest has a record breaking 20 countries participating.

The CCU announced later that the 5th contest would be open to associate members given their "feedback and interest" in the event. Since the contest is not like the Country Contest, the CCU is considering the idea of allowing associate members each edition.

Retrica Song Contest

Main article: Retrica Song Contest

On 8 July 2017, the CCU announced that a new Retrica Song Contest would take place featuring songs from 1900 to 1999 from participating countries. It is the first and only competition to not include the trademark country word in it. Additionally, it is the first contest to not be created solely by the CCU; a cooperation between BBC and CCU took place. The CCU later stated that the contest was about to be scrapped, but two countries joined "at the last minute" making the contest have enough participants. Leaked information has revealed that many contests have been scrapped in the past due to lack of countries joining.

Following the second edition, the CCU announced that the contest would be put on hiatus for "other projects."

Country Games

The CCU announced in 24 May 2017 that a new Country Games contest would be made. It would be similar to the format of the World Cup, but for promoting nations. On 9 June 2017, the CCU confirmed that the production had delay until later in the summer. Later that day, CCU stated that due to the lack of interest from broadcasters, the idea would ultimately be put on hold.

The contest was later revived and the first contest started airing in October 2017. In the contests first three weeks of live show, it became the most popular CCU contest, surpassing the Country Contest which had been the most popular since the CCU's inception. Shortly afterwards, the CCU renewed the contest for a second season and stated "We've had many broadcasters worldwide even asking to join our union to participate in the contest. We're very happy for the idea ABC adapted for the contest, and we can assure that there is something even bigger planned for the next edition."

However, the CCU later announced that despite plans of soon reviving the Country Contest, that it would continue its "indefinite postponement" but that the Country Games would "be open to all countries with broadcasters within the CCU; whether associate or regulars."

For the first time ever, the CCU had affect in the results of its contest. This was as the union served as a guest judge for the nation-off (though this would only affect the bottom two of the quarter-final).

On 19 June 2018, the CCU stated that "the contest was not likely to return to screens in 2018."

Future events

Interactive TV series

On 15 October 2017, the CCU announced that they had plans to create a scripted television series, unlike all the other unscripted series'. However, unlike other TV series, it would be interactive allowing all of Europe to control the series. The CCU later stated that they were in talks with some member broadcasters about how it could work.

On 23 October 2017, the CCU confirmed that the project had received positive reception among its member countries and that it was in an early development stage.

Country Cup

On 19 June 2018, the CCU announced while the 2018 World Cup was ongoing that they would create a Country Cup spin-off with cities battling each other out to win and be awarded "financial assistance" for the top cities.

Spin-offs

Untitled RTK spin-off

On 30 January 2018, the CCU announced that they sold the format of the Country Contest to RTK, who were said to be creating a Country Contest spin-off. RTK later stated that an official announcement would be made once details where finalized, as they were thinking of formats.

Shortly after, RTV Atlas stated that "[it] is interested in providing support to the contest, in any shape or form." Previously, the broadcaster participated in the Original Country Contest (aka Swiss-Czech Protest Members Contest) and Kamu Birliği Festivali.

RTS stated a few days later that "[they] would not participate nor support the contest, as Kosovo is not a recognized country of Serbia."

On 12 June 2018, RTK stated that given their membership in the Country Contest, that development of the so-said spin-off would be slowed down. As such, RTK confirmed that it would not debut until 2019.

New members

Australia (SBS)

On 18 June 2017, the CCU announced that the victory of Australia in the Model Contest and the successful results in the original toppled with the continued interest in the nation, that the country would be permanently joining the union.