Australia has competed for the past four years in the world’s largest television music competition, however until now has been invited annually by the European Broadcasting Union.

The news follows Australia's first ever selection show, Eurovision – Australia Decides, earlier this month. In the show, Kate Miller-Heidke and her song Zero Gravity were chosen to fly the flag for Australia at this year’s contest in Tel Aviv in May.

"SBS has been the home of the Eurovision Song Contest in Australia for 35 years and we’re thrilled by this invitation to become a more permanent member of the Eurovision Song Contest family. We will continue to showcase Australia’s amazing talent and diversity to hundreds of millions of people across Europe and the world. It highlights the power of music to bring people together – even from polar opposite sides of the globe. Thank you Europe!” said Josh Martin, commissioning editor, SBS.

Executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest Jon Ola Sand said: “We are delighted that Australia has become a more permanent member of the Eurovision Song Contest family. The Australians have long been huge fans of the event with a great number of loyal viewers year on year and when they were invited to participate in the 60th anniversary edition of the contest, we couldn’t have imagined quite how popular their artists would become.

“It was a natural progression for us to agree to their inclusion as a participant for the next five years as they bring so much to the table and we very much look forward to welcoming them to Tel Aviv to perform, alongside the 41 other exciting participants in what’s sure to be a fantastic celebration of music,” added Jon Ola Sand.

Eurovision Song Contest 2018 attracted around 186 million viewers worldwide and reached more than 2.9 million Australians on SBS, said the broadcaster.