United Kingdom in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
The participation of the United Kingdom in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest first began at the inaugural Junior Eurovision Song Contest in which took place in Copenhagen, Denmark. ITV, a member organisation of the United Kingdom Independent Broadcasting (UKIB) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), were responsible for the selection process of their participation. The United Kingdom used a national selection format, broadcasting a show entitled ""Junior Eurovision Song Contest: The British Final"", for their participation at the contests. The first representative to participate for the nation at the 2003 contest was  Tom Morley with the song "My Song For The World", which finished in third place out of sixteen participating entries, achieving a score of one hundred and eighteen points. United Kingdom withdrew from competing in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2006, and have yet to return to the contest. History. The United Kingdom is one of the sixteen countries to have made its debut at the inaugural Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003, which took place on 15 November 2003 at the Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark. Child-singer, Tom Morley, was the first participant to represent the United Kingdom with  the song "My Song For The World", which finished in third place out of sixteen participating entries, achieving a score of one hundred and eighteen points. Morley and Cory Spedding () sang both for the peace in the world and Joni Fuller () described her feelings. The country's best result at the contest was placing second in 2004 with the song "The Best is Yet to Come". The remaining British entrant finished in fourteenth position in 2005. In 2003, the contest was broadcast live on the main channel ITV (then known as ITV1), however the broadcaster decided to relegate it and  the national final to digital channel ITV2 for the next two years due to poor viewing figures that year, before their complete withdrawal in . A delayed broadcast, consisting of highlights, was aired on the main channel in 2004 and 2005. The inaugural contest, broadcast live on ITV1, averaged 5 million viewers. 1.9 million watched the 2004 contest on delay on ITV1 (221,000 watched the live coverage on ITV2). In 2005, the contest was watched by 700,000 viewers on ITV1 (down 63.16% compared with 2004 viewing figures), with 171,000 watching live on ITV2 (down 22.62% compared with 2004). The contest originally  should have been organised by Carlton Television for ITV in Manchester. In May 2003, it was confirmed that the UK would take part in Copenhagen and host the next edition. ITV then announced in May 2004 that due to financial and scheduling reasons, the contest would in fact not take place in the United Kingdom after all. In August 2004, it was revealed that Granada Television, who would have co-produced the show with Carlton, had decided to pull out of the deal claiming the allocated budget of 1.5 million euros was too small. The EBU offered funding of 900,000  to produce the event, featuring eighteen countries, but the ITV company said it would have cost almost 2.5 million euro so asked them to find a new host broadcaster. It is also thought that another factor to their decision was the previous years' audience ratings for ITV which were below the expected amount. Possible return. In July 2020, it was reported that BBC were considering participation in the upcoming contest in Warsaw. The UK did not appear on the official list of participants as released by the EBU on 8 September 2020. At a Junior Eurovision press event in May  2021, the EBU stated that they were working to bring the United Kingdom back to the contest, possibly for the 2021 edition. However, once again the United Kingdom did not appear on the final list of participants for the 2021 contest which is due to take place in Paris. On 17 December 2021, at a press conference between France Télévisions and the executive supervisor of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest Martin Österdahl, Österdahl stated that he was positive about talks between the European Broadcasting Union and the BBC about a potential return of the UK to the contest in the  future. On 11 January 2022, it was speculated that that BBC were looking to return to the contest in 2023, the year marking the 20th anniversary of the first contest. Welsh debut. The Welsh broadcaster Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C) had shown interest in participating for the UK in , hoping to share the Welsh language with a wider audience. Before the digital switchover, the contest would therefore be a bilingual broadcast that would be broadcast in Wales on analogue, and on S4C Digidol in the rest of the UK. In the end, S4C chose not to broadcast the contest. S4C announced  on 9 May 2018 that they would debut at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018 to be held in Minsk, Belarus. Possible Scottish debut. On 29 June 2019, the Scottish broadcaster BBC Alba confirmed that Scotland would not debut in the 2019 Junior Eurovision Song Contest, as they would compete in Eurovision Choir 2019 instead. However, the broadcaster did confirm that talks had taken place that could enable participation for the country in 2020. However, in April 2020, BBC Alba announced that they will not debut at the contest in Poland. Radio broadcast. On 21 November 2013, it was revealed  that Edinburgh-based 98.8 Castle FM (a non EBU member) would broadcast the contest live to listeners in Scotland. The broadcasting rights had been offered by the EBU to its members, however when no-one in the UK took up the offer, Castle FM – previously known as Leith FM – moved in. The commentators were Ewan Spence and Luke Fisher. It was announced on 16 October 2014 that the contest would be broadcast on a radio station across the United Kingdom. Five local radio stations broadcast the contest, one in England (103 The Eye, delayed) and Wales (Oystermouth Radio), and three  in Scotland (K107 in Kircaldy, Radio Six International in Glasgow and Shore Radio in Edinburgh). Cotswold FM, Fun Kids, Oystermouth Radio, Radio Six International and Shore Radio transmitted the contest live with commentary again provided by Ewan Spence. On 9 November 2016, Radio Six International announced that they would broadcast the contest live. Ewan Spence, Lisa-Jayne Lewis, Sharleen Wright and Ben Robertson provided the commentary for the radio stations Radio Six International, Fun Kids and 103 The Eye. Commentators and spokespersons. The contests are broadcast online worldwide through the official Junior Eurovision Song Contest website junioreurovision.tv and YouTube. In  2015, the online broadcasts featured commentary in English by junioreurovision.tv editor Luke Fisher and 2011 Bulgarian Junior Eurovision Song Contest entrant Ivan Ivanov. The British broadcaster, ITV, sent their own commentator to each contest in order to provide commentary in the English language. Spokespersons were also chosen by the national broadcaster in order to announce the awarding points from United Kingdom. The table below list the details of each commentator and spokesperson since 2003, however from 2013 the contest is broadcast by various non-participating radio stations.