I live in Los Angeles and would like to watch the live broadcast of
the 2006 Eurovision Song Competition (www.eurovision.tv;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest), which will be
held in Greece on May 20.  I have perused the official website and
searched broadly on the Internet but can't confirm how it might be
possible for us to view the broadcast in America.  I've also called
DirecTV and the operator didn't see it on her list of May PPV
offerings.  The closest I've come is the following link
(http://www.eurovision.tv/english/1867.htm), which lists all the
European broadcast partners but nothing for the USA (note: even though
networks like the BBC will be broadcasting it, the site specifies BBC
1, which unlike BBA America I don't believe is viewable in the
States).  For an event that's as wildly popular in Europe as
Eurovision is (it's like the Oscars; everybody watches!), I've got to
believe there's SOME way to get the broadcast here in the States.

We would be willing to pay for pay-per-view or even subscribe to any
additional DirecTV channel that we knew would carry it, but can't even
find that information.  Please note that Internet broadcast wouldn't
work; we'd like to have some friends over to watch as well and so
would need an actual television broadcast.

In summary: how can American cable subscribers watch the May 20 live
broadcast of the 2006 Eurovision Song Competition?

After searching and searching with no results, I now believe that
there is no way that would allow watching the Eurovision Song Contest
in the USA. This is very sad. Being European myself, I had been happy
to present you a solution. But much to my surprise, I found nothing,
not even a live Web broadcast. It's a crying shame that hundreds of
millions of Americans have no chance to witness this famous event.

Scriptor

It might become available as a DVD from amazon.co.uk - as the 2004 and
2005 contests are available there.

yeah, i've ben looking everywhere as well. i had a chance to catch it
on tv while in greece last year and bought the dvd to take back to the
states. just be aware that you will need a dvd player that is
compatible with the different format they have in europe. you can get
a cheap, perfectly good one that plays both u.s. and european dvd's
from bestbuy.com.

OK
I have an answer.
The BBC will be streaming it live on their website
Here is the address
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/eurovision/2006/news/news_streaming.shtml
Hope this Helps
Irv

hi
i've just been thru the same hassle too..checking out every tv guide n
stuff ..i was even ready to change to satellite for the event if i
could get bbc prime but it is not accessable in america :( it is best
to watch it on BBC - terry wogan the commentator is really good and
very popular ( even though sometimes his comments are not so nice but
thats what makes him popular i guess)last year i watched it on some
portuguese channel but the commentator was talking over in spanish it
was a bit frustrating since i dont speak spanish but it was better
than nothing. it is indeed very sad that we cannot watch it when there
are people from allover the world in america(im greek/ maltese so it
is very imp to me :)..eurovision is as popular as american idol is
here..oh well im gonna try hook up the computer to the tv for that
night and see how that goes . i remember i watched part of it on bbc
live stream last year but it wasnt coming out too good esp if the
connection is bad...but beggars cant be choosers ..so we gotta do with
what we've got..hope you will be able to watch it in some way ans
enjoy it...good luck!

hi it's me again...i was just checking out dish network and they got
some channels that are gonna show it, here they are..
channel 609- ERT (greek)
channel 615- RTPI (portuguese)
channel 656- ISRLI english (hebrew)

i know u said u got direct tv but one of your friends might have it..
have a good day :)

Hey, you should be able to receive it on TVE Internacional on DirecTV
- its a spanish channel. My name is Thor btw., and I live in Atlanta,
GA. I also get this channel on Comcast Cable.

Thor.

I have TVE on DirecTV and I watch Eurovision every year for the last 4
years.  The listings from DirecTV are never up to date and don't
usually list Eurovision until the last minute so don't bother talking
to them.  I just checked TVE Internacional http://www.rtve.es/ and in
the Programacion section select TVE INTERNACIONAL PROGRAMACION then
click America I satellite and you will see that the semifinals are on
at 5:20 AM Spain time today May 18.  The finals are broadcast live (or
at least it has been every year) which would make it sometime Saturday
- depends on what time zone you are in, but their program guide
doesn't list it yet.  So sign up for it and enjoy.

I forgot to mention.  It is also being streamed live on the internet -
http://www.eurovision.tv - But I don't know how reliable that feed
will be.

The best way is to watch directly from Eurovision site (internet
broadcasting up to 700 kbps):

http://eurovision.tv/english/index.htm#

You should click "Webcast" and you will be able to watch and choose
broadcasting quality. Please note that you will need OctoShape Plug-In
on your computer. Without this plug-in you will not be able to get any
signal.

Good luck!

You will get info about the live webcast at
http://www.eurovision.tv/english/2513.htm
After installing octoshape (at start page) you will be able to watch
the offers of eurovision.tv. (I would recommend to de-install octo
after needing it-it behaves like a tamagotchi with every boot
routine.)
You also can preview all the contributions and a lot of extras (Back
in time videos) at http://www.eurovision.tv/english/2513.htm >>
multimedia >> video

Actual video streams of the ESC 2006 are also at
http://www.eurovisionlive.com/englisch/archiv/2006/index.htm >> media
If you like, check our German contribution (Texas Lightning) and
related videos, you will be surprised...

Have fun & enjoy it,

Joerg