Voting Terms and Conditions
View full SMS Voting instructions here
1. To send SMS to the SUTASI voting system, audiences have to send by mobile phone the CORRECT keyword and number of the contestant(s) whom you would like to vote for and send to the shortcode for your country. Please see above for a complete listing of artist and country codes for SMS.
2. After sending the first SMS vote, SUTASI voters will receive a response SMS (only) for each phone number of mobile subscribers only (MSISDN) starting the first week of voting on 5 July 2009. All response SMS must conform to the laws of participating countries. Show producers for SUTASI have the right to change the response time when response SMS would be sent. This may include any response SMS which are sent outside the specific programs of SUTASI in order to avoid high network traffic.
3. Users of SMS voting service must be careful when sending SMS to vote. Voters are responsible for ensuring that correct information is sent as required to register a vote. SUTASI producers, the broadcaster within each country and SUTASI’S voting service providers (including but not limited to iPOP Networks and Infobank) will have no legal obligations for any incurring costs, lawsuits, or any other consequences caused by voters’ errors.
4. SUTASI voting services is available from 5 July 2009. Starting and closing date and time of voting will be decided by the show producers, and these times will be notified to audience as part of broadcast program of SUTASI.
5. SUTASI producers, the broadcaster within each country and SUTASI’S voting service providers (including but not limited to iPOP Networks and Infobank) have the right to maintain the confidentiality of all voting results. We will only announce some results which are required to serve for the purpose of the program.
6. SUTASI producers, the broadcaster within each country and SUTASI’S voting service providers (including but not limited to iPOP Networks and Infobank) will not accept any responsibilities or legal obligations related to damage costs or any consequences which occur when customers send SMS votes before opening time or after closing time of voting system as announced or advertised on television. This also includes, but not be limited to, the errors caused by different time zones in Asia. The broadcaster in each country and SUTASI have the right to modify the voting time of the program SUTASI at any time for many different reasons but not limited to the changing of broadcast schedule of the SUTASI program.
7. SUTASI votes through SMS will be charged a fee. Please see above for a complete listing of rates. Voters who are prepaid subscribers have to make sure that their account has enough money to pay fees for each registered vote. Only PAID votes would be counted in the final results.
8. Closing time of voting is based on the standard time as advertised on TV, and all votes received after voting is closed will not be counted towards final results.
VOTING PROCEDURES
Regional Finals
SUTASI is divided into 3 regional competitions – South Asia, Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. Three acts will proceed to the Grand Finale from each region. A judging panel of 3 highly respected music industry professionals will select one band and one solo artist from each region, and the public will vote for a band or solo artist from their region to proceed as the Wild Card. The public will have the opportunity to vote via paid SMS and free internet voting. SMS votes are unlimited. Internet voting is limited to one vote per category (Wild Card, Songwriter, Overall Winner). Individuals must be members of the SUTASI website in order to vote via internet.
If the judges have already selected the act with the most popular votes to advance to the Grand Final, then the act with the second most popular votes will proceed as the Wild Card. If the popular vote and the judging results cross over twice, then the act with the third most popular votes will proceed as the Wild Card.
The judges will make their choices in each category, and their results will be communicated to Asia Sounds corporate offices in writing. A number is assigned to each rank (i.e. first choice receives 4 points if there are 4 contestants in that category), and the band and the solo artist with the highest number proceeds to the Grand Finale. Example from Southeast Asia below:
Solo Artist – 4 Finalists
1. Receives 4 points
2. Receives 3 points
3. Receives 2 points
4. Receives 1 point
Bands – 7 Finalists
1. Receives 7 points
2. Receives 6 points
3. Receives 5 points
4. Receives 4 points
5. Receives 3 points
6. Receives 2 points
7. Receives 1 point
The voting process will result in 9 acts proceeding to the Grand Finale.
Songwriter Show
Six songwriters, 2 from each region, are competing in the Pan Asian Songwriter Competition. The winner of the songwriter competition will be determined solely by the public via SMS and internet voting. The winner of this competition will be announced at the Grand Final.
Grand Final
Show 6 is a Pan Asian broadcast announcing the 3 winners from each region that are competing to proceed to the Grand Final (1 band and 1 solo artist from each region chosen by judges and 1 Wild Card from each region). These winners, along with the Songwriter winner, will be announced in Show 7. The SUTASI Overall Winner will also be announced in Show 7.
The Overall Winner will be selected by a judging panel totaling seven, of whom six will be highly respected celebrities and music industry professionals from around the world. The public will be the seventh judge, and the popular vote will be collected via SMS and internet voting. The judges will place each act, solo artist or band in order of preference, awarding their first preference 9 points, heading down to their least preferred act, to which they will award one point. The act that receives the most votes by the public will receive 9 points and the act with the least amount of votes from the public will receive one point. The SUTASI Overall Winner will be the Band or Solo Artist who has received the most combined voting points.
The Grand Final public voting ends on August 5th, 2009 at 6:00 AM (Pacific Standard Time)
