The history of Intervision is intrinsically linked to the Cold War and the ideological division of Europe. Far more than just a song contest, Intervision was the name of the television network established by the communist-led states of the Eastern Bloc as a counterpart to Western Europe's Eurovision.
The Cold War Backdrop: East vs. West Broadcasting
Following World War II, international broadcasting organizations in Europe were split along political lines.
The West: The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) was founded in 1950 by Western European broadcasters. It went on to create the Eurovision Network in 1954 to facilitate the exchange of television programs, famously launching the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in 1956.
The East: The Eastern Bloc's equivalent was the International Radio and Television Organisation (OIRT), a successor to an earlier body, which eventually consolidated its headquarters in Prague.
In an effort to rival the EBU's burgeoning program exchange and technological cooperation, the OIRT members launched their own television network in 1960, naming it Intervision. Initially, the Intervision Network was founded by the state broadcasters of Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany, and Hungary. Its primary function was to facilitate the live exchange of television programs, including news, cultural shows, and significant events, among its member countries, which later included the Soviet Union and other socialist states.
The Intervision Song Contest
The most famous, and often most mythologized, output of the Intervision network was the Intervision Song Contest (ISC), the Eastern Bloc's answer to the hugely popular Eurovision Song Contest.
The contest's initial phase was a product of the cultural liberalization processes in Czechoslovakia, preceding the Prague Spring reforms. The first series, officially called the Golden Clef Intervision Contest (Zlatý klíč Intervize), was launched in 1965 and held in various cities across Czechoslovakia. This period of the Intervision Song Contest was surprisingly open. In the 1968 edition, as Czechoslovakia briefly experienced freedom of the press, the contest even included entries from Western countries that were also EBU members, such as Austria, Finland, and West Germany. This unique moment made the 1968 contest arguably the first pan-European televised song contest.
Cancellation: The Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and the subsequent end of the Prague Spring brought this initial, liberal run of the contest to an abrupt halt.
Phase Two: The Sopot Years (1977–1980)
After a nearly decade-long hiatus, the ISC was revived under a different banner in Poland. In 1977, Polish Television (Telewizja Polska, TVP) rebranded the existing Sopot International Song Festival (which had begun in 1961) as the Intervision Song Contest. It was staged at Sopot’s Forest Opera. While it retained its political alignment, the contest often featured artists from a broader international scope, including other socialist states like Cuba, and it remained popular in the Eastern Bloc.
The second run was short-lived. Following mass protests over political and economic conditions in Poland and the subsequent imposition of martial law in 1981, the contest was cancelled. By this time, the contest's popularity was already waning, a metaphor for the broader decline of the communist political and economic systems it represented.
End of an Era and Failed Revivals
The collapse of communist regimes and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s marked the definitive end of the OIRT and the Intervision Network. The OIRT was absorbed by the EBU, erasing the network from the cultural map.
New Attempts
2008 Revival: A one-off song festival called "Five Stars: Intervision" was held in Sochi, Russia, featuring countries from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), but it did not lead to a permanent format.
The Modern Re-launch (2025–Present): In the 2020s, after Russia's exclusion from the Eurovision Song Contest, the Russian government announced plans to permanently re-launch the Intervision International Music Contest as a state-backed alternative, expanding its focus to include countries from BRICS and the Global South.
Legacy
While often dismissed in the media as merely a "copy of Eurovision", the Intervision Song Contest and its network were a significant cultural and technical entity in their time. The contest’s brief periods of openness, particularly in 1968, offered rare glimpses of cultural exchange across the Iron Curtain and provided a platform for Eastern European pop artists and liberalization movements. Its history serves as a fascinating lens through which to view the cultural and political aspirations, and ultimate decline, of the Soviet Bloc. Its modern era version launched with success in participation and an anticipation for the years to come.
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