Idol’s $M$ voting

Does Australian Idol really rake in up to $785,000 an hour in phone voting?

Probably says The Sunday Telegraph. Definitely not says FremantleMedia. But it declined to clarify its average.

According to the newspaper, the figure is tallied on information given in on air during the show’s final.

“We’re receiving 280 votes per second at the moment,” said Be.interactive managing director Lara Thom during a live cross last Sunday.

“At this very minute, we’re receiving 7000 1900-votes a minute and the gap has just closed by a further two per cent in the last three minutes.”

Based on 280 text votes per second at 55c a message, that’s $154 a second.

That would equate to $9240 a minute, or $554,400 for the hour, notes the Sunday Telegraph.

At 7000 votes per minute to the 1900 numbers – again at 55c a call – that’s $3850 a minute, or $231,000 for the hour.

But a FremantleMedia spokesperson watered down the claims, pointing to the fury of a Grand Final.

“To specifically discuss the reference made on-air, one second of voting in the final moments of the grand final is certainly not reflective of voting patterns at any other time,” they said.

“Voting patterns dramatically fluctuate during any period the voting lines are open and voting is minimal when the program is not on air.

“This reference was at a time when up to 1.8 million people were tuned in to see the live outdoor concert and the announcement of the winner.”

Nevertheless it does provide a crack in the wall of reality television voting. What’s pretty clear is two things.

1) Broadly speaking, the show doesn’t make $785,000 from voting.
2) Clearly it still makes a LOT of ker-ching.

Source: Sunday Telegraph