Rules of the Mediterraneanvision Song Contest

The official rules of the Mediterraneanvision Song Contest are long, technical, and ever-changing. The rulebook of the contest includes rules for the entries, the broadcasting of the contest, and the voting.

Participation
There are several rules regarding the participation of a country in the contest and they are listed below:
 * 1) The country must be a member of the Mediterranean Broadcasting Union with an active broadcaster. If the country is not a member, then an application must be made to the organization with the appropriate information.
 * 2) In order to take part in one edition, the country must confirm within the given deadline for confirmation. If the country does not confirm their participation before the deadline, then they are not allowed to participate. Exceptions can be made in very rare cases after the organization reviews the country's request.
 * 3) It is required that all shows of the edition are broadcast in the country. Also, the whole show must be broadcast, with no interruptions.

Entries
Before selecting an entry, each broadcaster must take into consideration the following rules.
 * 1) Songs that have taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest or its Junior version are not allowed to take part in the contest. Eurovision national final songs are allowed, but only after it is certain that they did not win their national selection.
 * 2) Covers are not allowed to take part in the contest.
 * 3) Songs that have been revamped or remixed are only allowed if the original singer released it.
 * 4) Songs using samples are only allowed if the sample doesn't overtake the song and the song is deemed original enough in its own right.
 * 5) There are no restrictions regarding the language; the song can be in any language, no matter the country it represents.
 * 6) Songs that competed in the past cannot take part again.
 * 7) The artist must be over the age of 15.
 * 8) The artist must be from or have some relation to the country. Foreign artists may rarely be accepted in certain cases. All artists in the song must be alive. If an artist has no connection to a country, however, they represented the country at Eurovision or its Junior version, they are allowed to compete for the country.
 * 9) Songs cannot be overused in other online song contests. A song is only be deemed overused by the owner and moderators, if they have seen the entry compete in more than 3 contests.

Selection process
An entry can be either selected via an internal or a national selection. Rules applying to both are listed below.

National selection
In case of a national selection, the broadcaster must follow the following rules:
 * 1) All the entries must follow the entry requirements.
 * 2) There are no rules regarding the number of songs, the length or the voting system of the selection.
 * 3) The national selection can start only after the song submissions for the edition have opened.
 * 4) The results of the selection have to be presented before the given songs deadline. However, the broadcaster is allowed to submit a request for a later result presentation.
 * 5) Songs that have been used in the national selection can be used again in a further national or internal selection.
 * 6) 12.5% (1 out of 8) of the entries in a selection can be from a non-competing country that has the same official language as the country.

Internal selection
In case of an internal selection, the broadcaster must follow the following rules when selecting an entry:
 * 1) The entry must follow the entry requirements.
 * 2) The song must be submitted to the MBU and presented before the given songs deadline.

Borrowing
Some countries that have smaller music industries are allowed to borrow from neighbouring or countries they have connections with. These countries are the following: Additionally, the following countries are allowed to borrow from any country in the world, however, they can only use songs that have less than 500k views on YouTube:



Voting
There are some rules regarding the voting procedure. These are listed below:
 * 1) The country must submit their jury and televote results to the executive supervisor responsible for the respective edition.
 * 2) The voting result must be submitted within the given voting deadline.
 * 3) The jury voting result must be announced during the live show by a person appointed by the broadcaster as the spokesperson for the country.
 * 4) The televotes are presented by the hosts after the jury voting, starting with the lowest score and ending with the highest score of the jury vote.
 * 5) Countries that place within the top 6 in one edition, become members of the "Big 6" in the next edition, which means they skip the semi-finals and thus they automatically qualify for the final.