ABU TV Cup Song Contest turns into a reallity

The website Eurovoix World, has revealed that the ABU will finally turn the ABU TV Song Festival into a competitive event. The official name of the future contest will be "ABU TV Cup Song Contest" and its first edition will take place in 2017.

(Hunan TV Tried to convince the European Broadcating Union
in order to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.)

The first rumours about this movement were made public in August, when the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union made public that they were negotiating with Hunan TV (a popular mainland chinese private channel), to turn the ABU Song Festivals into a compeitive event. 

On october 25th, the ABU Confirmed that the agreement to create a music competition event was finally done, and that the full members of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union would be able to take part in the event.

Till now, the ABU has been organising the ABU TV Song Festival, focused on well known performers, and the ABU Radio Song Festival, which is mainly focused on unknown and unsigned singers and bands. Although none of the events are competitive, the number of the participating countries has been varying between 12 to 15.

The Music contests have had a turbulent past. From 1989 to 1991, the ABU held every year the Golden Kite song Contest, where many countries around the world were able to participate. After that, from 2009 to 2010, there have been many proposals to create the AsiaVision Song contest, which was later renamed as Our Sound Song Contest. Anyway, the festival, failed to take place because of license issues.

Finally, with the agreement to create a competitive Song Contest in Asia in 2017, the countries that are able to participate in this future event are:

Afghanistan
Australia
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Brunei
Cambodia
China
Egypt
Fiji
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Iran
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Macau
Malaysia
Maldives
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nauru
Nepal
New Zealand
Norfolk Island
North Korea
Palestine
Pakistan
Papua New Guinea
Philippines
Samoa
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Solomon Islands
South Korea
Sri Lanka
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Tonga
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Vietnam

Source: ABU and Eurovoix World