BBC scraps premium-rate phone voting
September 8, 2025
By Nik Roseveare
The BBC has called time on letting its viewers vote via premium-rate phone numbers when interacting with shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and BBC Sports Personality of the Year – with voting instead moving exclusively online. Earlier this year, the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel was the first such event to see the change in effect.
“For years [viewers voted] by calling premium-rate numbers. However, this is now an outdated system and also expensive to run. Online voting has become the go-to choice for most viewers. In fact, the overwhelming majority of votes for the last Strictly series were cast online,” explained the BBC. “And earlier this year, BT, the company that provided these phone services for the BBC, announced it would stop offering them in early 2025. From now on, voting for BBC shows will be done online only.”
Viewers that already have a BBC account won’t need to do anything to be able to cast votes. During voting, they will be directed to the show’s website where the voting link will be clearly displayed. Those who don’t have an account yet can register via the BBC website.
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