In a significant challenge to the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) claim of political neutrality, three national broadcasters—RTÉ (Ireland), RTV (Slovenia), and RTVE (Spain)—have confirmed they will not air the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest.
The decision marks a total broadcasting blackout in these nations, aimed at protesting the continued inclusion of Israel in the competition.
While these countries had previously announced they would not field contestants for the 70th-anniversary event in Vienna, the move to pull the broadcast entirely signals a deepening divide over the EBU’s refusal to suspend the Israeli delegation.
Slovenia’s public broadcaster, RTV, has taken the most hardline stance, announcing that the slot usually reserved for the pop spectacle will instead be filled by “Voices of Palestine,” a series of documentaries and feature films highlighting Palestinian life.
Meanwhile, Spain’s RTVE will skip the broadcast for the first time since joining in 1961, and Ireland’s RTÉ has reaffirmed its 2025 decision to cease all participation and coverage.
Although the Netherlands (NPO) and Iceland (RÚV) have also withdrawn their artists from the stage, they have opted to continue broadcasting the event to their domestic audiences. In the build-up to this year’s competition, activist hostility towards Israel looks set to further expand—not least from public broadcasters. As Europeanconservative.com noted of the previous round of boycott announcements, “the focus of Eurovision is increasingly not whether you can hold a tune, but whether you hold the right politics.”
