MOSCOW, May 14, 2009. Russian Public Opinion Center (VCIOM) presents the data describing the attitudes of Russians concerning the "Eurovision" contest, whether they are going to watch the Eurovision Final; whether they know which country hosts Eurovision-2009; knowing who represents Russia, and how Russians vote - "for the artist" or "for the country".
More than half of Russians (56%) have a positive attitude concerning Eurovision Song Contest: 37% of them attentively watch performances, 19% do not watch the contest broadcast at all. Almost a third part of respondents are neutral (32%). Only 5% have negative attitude, and 6% do not know anything about the contest.
Those who are interested in broadcasts are mainly residents of middle-sized cities (43%), women (43%) and those aged 18-24 (50%). On the contrary, those who are neutral are often metropolitan residents (47%), men (37%) and 25-59-year-old respondents (34-36%).
47% of Russians are going to watch the 2009 Eurovision Final broadcast. Most of them are middle-sized cities residents (53%), women (54%) and respondents aged 18-24 (64%). In contrast, 37% of Russians are not planning to watch the Contest Final. They are basically Muscovites, St.Petersburgians and residents of big cities (45-46%), men (45%) and Russians aged 60 and above (47%); 16 % were undecided.
The majority of Russians know that Eurovision Song Contest 2009 is taking place in Russia this year (71%). IN contrast, 28% do not know anything about it.
At the same time, more than a half of Russians (58%) cannot tell the name of the artist representing Russia in this contest. 40% can answer this question: 35% are correct in naming Anastasia Prihodko, 4% do not tell any name and mention a Ukrainian female singer, and 1% think that Russia will be represented, as in the previous year, by Dima Bilan.
"Vote for the artist, not for the country!". Russians tend to think that Eurovision TV viewers vote for the artist they liked (42%), rather than for the country which is close to them in terms of geography and culture (31%). The former point of view is mostly shared by the residents of North Western Federal District of Russia (50%) and respondents with a secondary special education (46%), the latter one - by the Southerners (39%) and those holding a higher education diploma (43%); 28% were undecided.
The initiative Russian opinion poll was conducted on May 9-10, 2009.
1600 respondents were interviewed at 140 sampling points in 42 regions of Russia.
The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.
What is your attitude concerning Eurovision Song Contest in general? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||||
| Total respondents | Type of settlement | ||||
Moscow & St.Petersburg | More than 500thousand | 100-500thousand | Less than 100 | Rural area | ||
positive; I often watch the contest Final with much interest | 37 | 29 | 35 | 43 | 38 | 36 |
positive, but I do not usually watch the Contest broadcasts | 19 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 24 | 21 |
neutral | 32 | 47 | 36 | 30 | 29 | 29 |
negative | 5 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 3 |
I do not know anything about this contest | 6 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 8 |
hard to tell | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Are you going to watch the Eurovision-2009 Song Contest broadcast this time? (close-ended question, one answer) | |||
| Total respondents | sex | |
male | female | ||
yes | 47 | 38 | 54 |
no | 37 | 45 | 30 |
hard to tell | 16 | 17 | 15 |
Do you know which country hosts the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest? | |
Russia | 71 |
no, I do not know | 28 |
hard to tell | 1 |
Do you know who represents Russian in Eurovision 2009? (open-ended question, one answer) | |
Prihodko | 35 |
Bilan | 1 |
a Ukrainian female singer | 4 |
no, I do not know | 58 |
hard to tell | 2 |
In your opinion, how do the Eurovision TV viewers vote when choosing the winner? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||||||
| Total respondents | Federal Districts* | ||||||
CFO | NWFD | SFD | PFD | UFD | SFD | DFD | ||
according to the "like-dislike this artist" principle, based on personal preferences and likes in music | 42 | 36 | 50 | 36 | 46 | 47 | 44 | 36 |
according to geographical and cultural proximity of the participating countries, voting for the country in general but not for the artist | 31 | 30 | 34 | 39 | 26 | 30 | 27 | 32 |
hard tot tell | 28 | 33 | 16 | 25 | 28 | 23 | 29 | 33 |
*Abbreviations
CFD - Central Federal District
NWFD - North-Western Federal District
SFD - Southern Federal District
PFD - Volga Federal District
UFD - Urals Federal District
SFD - Siberian Federal District
DFD - Far-Eastern Federal District
Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or www.wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM,
the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!