This year, Australia will become the first country to use online voting in Eurovision.
TV Tonight have confirmed that Australia will be voting online in this years Eurovision Song Contest, as opposed to voting via phone or SMS. Australian’s have the chance to vote in semi final 2 and the grand final.
Australian broadcaster SBS has partnered up with the official voting partner for Eurovision, German-based company Digame, as SBS explains.
“Eurovision’s official voting partner Digame in Germany has created a new online voting platform, exclusively for Australia’s public Eurovision vote. This means there will be no SMS or Televoting in Australia during the live shows. All of Australia’s public votes will be received via the new online system.
The voting portal will be accessed via www.esc.vote, hosted by Digame. Votes will be limited to 20 per person and will cost 55c per vote.
You will be able to select which acts you want to vote for and how many votes per act (up to 20 votes total). How you allocate those votes is up to you: you could allocate 20 votes to one act, divide your votes between multiple acts, or just make one vote for your favourite.
Payment options are Google Pay, Apple Pay or Credit Card. Once payment has been received no more votes can be taken from that user. Full voting terms and conditions will be available on the voting platform.”
Australia is represented by Sheldon Riley in this years Eurovision Song Contest. He will perform “Not The Same” in eighth place in semi final 2 on May 12th.
Australian’s will be able to watch all of the shows live as well as on catch-up. The two semi finals will be re-broadcast on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th May at 20:30 local time, with the final being re-broadcast on Sunday 15th May at 19:30 local time.
What are your thoughts on Australia using online voting in Eurovision? Do you think could be extended to other European countries and become a regular fixture in Eurovision? Let us know in the comments below!
One Response
Online voting is a good idea but charging per vote will make lots of Australians very angry – especially when many already have phone services that include some complimentary calls and/or SMS that they may have been saving for this event.
In the 21st century, there is no valid reason to be charging people money to vote! The only reason they had to charge last millennium was due to the cost of hiring a special temporary number for the night.
Online voting should be free of charge.