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The shift in the current sixth season of Idols on M-Net where viewers now vote for a contestant with a specific 0-something number, instead of the contestant's name, is paying off for the pay broadcaster after last year's Idols finale stem fiasco and has resulted in more valid votes as well as cleaning up the way in which viewers get to vote.
I asked Pierre Cloete, M-Net channel manager about the changes to the Idols voting system from names to numbers and how its working. ''The valid votes for Idols are much higher percentage wise, because now there is no room for spelling errors and sending the wrong name through,'' says Pierre Cloete. ''Its cleaning up the way people vote and making it much easier. Its much easier typing a zero and then another number than a long name.''
''We are seeing a very small percentage of people still sending names through,'' Pierre Cloete tells me, ''but we've said very clearly that you have to send the number of the contestant you want to vote for and not their name. People who send a name - it's unfortunately an unvalid vote. We're not counting them back. We're keeping the rules quite strict on the voting this year.''
