Despite the embarrassing Miss Hong Kong voting fiasco, TVB wishes to utilize online votes for its upcoming contests and awards. Earlier, TVB announced plans to implement the live voting system for the 2013 Hong Kong Music Awards. It now plans to administer online voting to determine the winners of the Miss Chinese International Pageant and TVB Anniversary Awards this year. TVB Pacifies Angry Public After TVB’s servers crashed in the critical last ten minutes of the 2012 Miss Hong Kong pageant, many viewers were angered by the failure of the voting system. Audiences’ votes were announced to be null, with the pageant’s judges determining the final winners instead. Over 500 public complaints were lodged. To pacify the public, TVB included a “2012 Miss Hong Kong Lucky Draw” segment in the variety program Wai Yin 30th Anniversary <慧妍爱心倾城30年> last weekend. The prizes included two Mini Coopers, successfully enticing approximately 1.27 million viewers to participate online within 48 hours. One Person, One Vote for 2012 TVB Anniversary Awards? TVB Director of Production, Sandy Yu (余咏珊), also proposed to implement the live voting system for the TVB Anniversary Awards, allowing viewers to vote for their favorite TV King and TV Queen. TVB vows to resolve its technical issues, allowing 2 million viewers to crown their ideal TV King and Queen within a ten-minute voting time. TVB Deputy Director of External Affairs, Tsang Sing Ming (曾醒明) stated that the idea was in its preliminary stage. The decision in the voting system will be determined by the organizing committee of the TVB Anniversary Awards. Difficulties in Implementing Live Voting System Although viewers may find it exciting to vote for their favorite TV King and Queen, several issues will need to be ironed out. TVB will first need to invest in its servers and ensure that the voting system is able to sustain several millions of people voting within a short time frame. Although public votes determined 30 percent of the final results of past TVB Anniversary Awards, many viewers were doubtful if their votes truly counted. Lacking transparency in public votes, the annual TV King and Queen awards were often controversial. Suspicions arose if the awards were merely a battle between TVB management executives to push for their favored artists. Final Decision Undecided Some viewers also expressed that the TV King and Queen awards may morph into a popularity contest instead. “Not all award categories will be decided by public votes. There may only be some awards which will be voted by public. Viewers do not need to worry too early at this stage,” said Tsang Sing Ming. Asked if there will be transparency for all the awards categories, Tsang Sing Ming said, “We won’t progress that fast yet! We will leave it to the committee.” Creds: ihktv
