This story was produced by our colleagues at the BBC.

This week’s Eurovision Song Contest is returning to where it began — Switzerland, the country where it was first held in 1956. In its near 70-year history, the TV show has transformed to become a priority for the ever-changing music industry, with record labels, songwriters and platforms generating money out of the biggest entertainment show in the world. But how has it survived in an age of streaming platforms?

Two years ago, Austrian singer Teya wrote and performed her own song on the Eurovision stage — “Who The Hell is Edgar” — a satirical take on how songwriters are treated in the music industry, especially regarding royalties. It came in 15th but has generated more than 30 million streams, which she said has been vital to her success.

“If you have a Eurovision song, you can be sure people are going to hear it — that’s just a given,” she said. “Definitely a little more money comes in with Eurovision songs. Radio definitely gets more money than streaming. The best case scenario is that you write a Eurovision track that’s also a radio track.”

Ahead of last year’s song contest final in Malmo, Sweden, streaming for the contest’s 37 songs reached 807 million on Spotify alone. With two semi-finals in addition to the final, the show has remained a global phenomenon with a viewership of around 160 million a year.

Rob Holley is head of digital for the Eurovision Song Contest.

“It’s the biggest music show on the planet,” he said. “We’re one of the last remaining platforms to launch new artists. You will get an act from a small town in one of the smaller countries, who are an independent artist on an independent label.”

And this is where streaming really comes into its own, Holley said.

“By the time we get to the event week, they’ve got half a million Spotify streams and millions of followers on Instagram and TikTok. So the journey ahead of Basel is establishing a fanbase, so it gives them the longevity for their pop careers,” he said.

Money is being pumped into artists like never before, but there is a cost for each broadcaster to participate. Countries like France have a huge budget but smaller nations like Slovenia, Latvia and Montenegro can’t throw the same money at the contest. And as the contest grows, those countries with financial pressures think twice about taking part.

In the past couple of years Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Romania and Moldova have all pulled out because of finances — from accommodation costs to the entourage for an act.

The European Broadcasting Union, which puts on the contest, reports that Eurovision has global reach. More than 10% of articles and social media posts came from the United States last year, according to the EBU.

And with hits from the song contest charting in the U.S. — like the song “Arcade” by Duncan Laurence of The Netherlands or Armenia’s Rosa Linn’s “Snap” — one of the longest-running TV shows in the world is still making waves in the music industry on an international scale nearly seven decades later.