Yes, thought they might have doubled it - 70m sounds about right.

Marco Pierre White's Kitchen Wars promo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZg2qPPK5UE

Quite distinctive compared to 5's usual branding with the logo in the middle. Overall quite a classy trailer. Jury is still out though on whether or not Marco alone is going to be enough of a draw to get the audience they'll want for a show like this, and with no actual programme footage on offer that is what people will judge upon.

Major plus point being paired with Big Brother though, in a slot where precious little else appeals. I guess 5 will be reasonably happy as long as it has good demos as other cookery shows like MasterChef do.

Yes its a good idea from Channel5 to try new reality show ideas around Big Brother. I dont think they did much to capitalise around BB last year so this is an improvement from the channel. Will Marco Pierre White be popular with viewers? Im not sure. But at least theyre trying.

Really like that - reminds me of CBS/FOX/NBC promos in US.

I think Eurovision is going to run over. I can't see them fitting in the vote in 45 minutes.

Looks like we're going to be humiliated at Eurovision. For a change.

Same old voting going on in Eurovision. Belarus voting for Russia, Azerbaijan voting for Turkey, Greece voting Cyprus etc.

is anybody, the least bit surprised?

Lol Engelbert should have sung The Last Waltz and hoped no one noticed it was a huge sixties number 1.

The Last Waltz is a very apt title..............

I know its said every year, but I do wonder why we continue to be one of the "Big 5", who put the most money in to it when clearly its expanded way beyond that now.

Oh dear there will be questions raised in the house

...........its a good job we cant be relegated.

But it's still a really small amount of money we put in - I'm sure its less than £200,000. By far BBC1's cheapest night of programming.

And there is no big mystery about why this keeps happening. Again, the song that is going to win is already a hit all over Europe. These countries that are winning are managing to get their biggest stars to compete, the equivalent of us putting up Coldplay, Cheryl, Adele, etc. Until the BBC manage to convince one of the many British acts who people are listening to on radio across Europe, we have no hope.

Werent Blue quite a big act last year by UK standards? They didnt do very well. The UK will never win again, too much political voting going on.

im not really talking about cost to the BBC, im talking about spreading the cost between all the country's that take part, not just the Big 5.

It might be better for the contest if everybody funds it equally.

Blue havn't been big in ten years.

And people talk about "political voting", but thats a throwback to when they had 100% jury votes. It's just people voting according to their cultural tastes and what they know about and have heard about. Was the UK giving points to Ireland "political voting", or was it just that we knew Jedward?

Cyprus have voted 12 points to Greece 16 years in a row. Of course its heavily influenced by political voting, they trade 12 points between each other all the time. Look at the terrible Russian grannies come 2nd because theres that block voting going on. If the UK had sent that exact same song with grannies, we'd have come near the bottom!

Also is simply absurd to keep buying our way into a final, we are going to loose. Until we can be knocked out in the semis, we wont take it seriously.

It's more about the EBU itself, rather than the Song Contest. I guess it's just because the BBC is in a position to support it financially.

When you say "political voting" is that what you really mean?

It's a thowback to the accusation that the government of the nation would rig the jury to give votes to other nations.

They removed all juries from the song contest and if anything it got worse!

It's just members of the public picking up the phone and voting for who they want. Unless you think the broadcaster in Greece is rigging the public vote?

Germany won 2 years ago.

does not mean we have to.

I have enough petrol in my tank, and enough money in my bank to go by a mars bar from the 24 hour Tesco about 12 miles away, it doesn't mean I should.

I think we should just enter like any other country,

Yeah, its a fair point. In an ideal world all entrants should be equal.

that said its worth noting that the winning song is AWESOME, whilst I never really liked our song, thought it was very beige, and far too Radio 2 for both its own good, and even for Radio 2.

We came 5th in 2009. I do think people hate to think that maybe our entry was just a bit shit. It's far easier to blame the rest of Europe. The best song won. The UK gave it 12 points so that should tell you something.