Over ten million televotes were received during the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, the European Broadcasting Union and its voting partner Digame reveal today. With 8,825,527 calls and text messages received in 2008, this year's Eurovision Song Contest saw an increase of over 20 percent.
During the two Semi-Finals and the Final, 6,162,749 text messages came in and 4,517,933 calls were made to cast a vote.
During this year's Final alone, over 1,5 million more calls and text messages came in compared to last year. Over the past years, the number of incoming calls has been relatively stable, while the amount of incoming text messages has significantly increased year after year. In just five years, the number of text messages sent out to cast a vote has nearly tripled.
Televoting revenues are being distributed back to the participating EBU Member Broadcasters, thereby partly compensating participation fees.
Since 2004, the EBU closely cooperates with voting partner Digame to secure a reliable and fair voting procedure. "Those who question the reliability of the outcome are often amazed when they see how much effort we put in securing a reliable outcome," says the contest's Executive Supervisor, Svante Stockselius. "If you organize a competition of this magnitude, you better assure the results are correct."
