In addition to presenting the United Kingdom's votes, Ken Bruce also provided commentary for BBC Radio. On the other hand, Terry Wogan, host of the show, also provided commentary for the British TV audience during the songs.
First edition where the names of the countries appeared printed on screen all the time during the performances.
First time that televoting, voting by phone from viewers watching the show, was massively introduced among most of the participating countries to decide the scores. Only a few countries, namely Ireland and a couple others, kept on using the traditional juries because their phone line systems were not ready for televoting. The rest of the countries still kept a back-up jury which would be in charge of casting the votes in case of a technical failure or an emergency preventing to broadcast the show live.
Last edition with a live orchestra. Several countries already recorded all their music in anticipation while others mixed a prerecorded track with the live orchestra.
Last edition where countries were forced to sing in one or many of their official national languages. Freedom of language, which had already existed between 1973 and 1976, was reinstated the following year.