Lights, Camera, Connection –
Swisscom Broadcast at the ESC
The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 is not just about music, glamour and emotion – but also about a huge technical feat. As the official technical partner, Swisscom Broadcast ensured that everything ran smoothly at St. Jakobshalle in Basel: from voting and media infrastructure to live streaming in numerous living rooms around the world.
From 13 to 17 May 2025, the city of Basel hosted Europe’s largest music event. Under the slogan «Welcome Home,» the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) returned to the place where it all began in 1956 – Switzerland. Hundreds of thousands of fans attended the event, over 170 million viewers worldwide followed the event and a high-performance technical network connected everything in the background.
The technology behind the ESC
As Official Technical Partner, Swisscom Broadcast took over responsibility for the technical infrastructure and connectivity of the event. The goal: perfect conditions for TV broadcasting, media coverage and international voting – live, reliable and free from interference. But how does it work?
- 3 IP Plus connections, each with 10 Gbit/s:
These are particularly powerful Internet connections that ensure that all data is transmitted quickly and without interruption from two different Swisscom switching centers.
- Two dedicated lines to Frankfurt and Geneva:
These connections have been reserved exclusively for the ESC and are particularly secure and powerful.
- Extensive WLAN:
Throughout the St. Jakobshalle, in the backstage areas, offices and changing rooms.
- Hidden networks (SSID) for particularly sensitive areas such as the production system and the ticketing system. These networks are invisible to outsiders and therefore particularly protected.
- Network monitoring:
On site and centrally from the Swisscom Operation Center. A team of specialists kept an eye on the network around the clock.
- 20 kilometres of cable and 500 hardware components: Countless components have been installed and connected to link all areas of the ESC.
- An average of 2,500 devices use WLAN every day, with a peak of almost 2,800 devices connected at the same time at the grand finale.
- Not a single outage: During all the live shows, the network functioned smoothly – without any fault or deviation.
Performance that impresses: our customer feedback
We connect what moves the world
ESC 2025 was not only a musical highlight, but also a technical masterpiece. With a great deal of passion, innovative spirit and teamwork, Swisscom Broadcast contributed to the smooth running of the Eurovision Song Contest – reaching an enthusiastic global audience.
