Preferences of public different from those of jury of Eurovision national preselection

The band Akord, with over 700 appearances on the radio and TV, did not go through to the national Eurovision final, unlike Ruslan Taranu, who had only four appearances in 21 days. The results of the monitoring performed by Media Forest Moldova were presented in a news conference on Monday. “According to the monitoring, 50% of the competitors shouldn’t have gone through to the final, judging by the frequency of their appearance on radio and TV, which shows the consumers’ opinion as well,” said the director of Media Forest Moldova Alexandru Popovich. Among the 20 songs selected by the jury after they were performed live are Open your eyes (M Studio), A ray of sun (Leria), Open your eyes (Dara), and Blanshe (Ruslan Taranu). In the rankings of the most frequently broadcast songs, they come after the 47th position. “The press reports say the list of 20 contenders selected for the 2012 Eurovision final is influenced by the relations of friendship and favoritism among the members of the jury and the selected participants,” said Alexandru Popovich. As to the radio stations and TV channels that cover the 2012 Eurovision contest, Radio Moldova did a significant jump, from 10 to 77 broadcasts, being among the top ten in the rankings. Media Forest Moldova started work in May 2011. The Media Forest system includes software that measures the frequency of the appearance of the media products and the length of the appearance. Anyone can benefit from this information free of charge, by creating an account on the company’s website - mediaforest.md. “These data are needed in order to monitor the activity on the media market and stimulate competition,” said Alexandru Popovich.