Telco 2degrees to waive Dancing with the Stars' text-to-vote cut

Dancing with the Stars' contestant Jess Quinn. More money will go directly to contestants' charities after 2degrees waived their text-to-vote cut. Photo / Supplied

Telco 2degrees is waiving its cut from each 99c text-to-vote the public makes for Dancing with the Stars' remaining contestants.

The change — aimed at increasing how much contestants' chosen charities receive — began last weekend , 2degrees spokeswoman Katherine Cornish said.

Contestants in the Three reality TV show battle to avoid elimination each week, with the outcome decided in a 50/50 split between judges' scores and audience text votes.

However, it's not clear how much of the 99c for each text vote contestants' charities ultimately receive.

Three's owner Mediaworks said net proceeds from the text-to-vote mechanism go to the contestants' nominated charities.

"MediaWorks does not retain any money from the text votes. Costs are deducted for the independent text-to-vote and auditing services," spokeswoman Annabelle White said.

"We can't speak on behalf of the telecommunication companies which deduct service provider charges from the cost of voting. Given this is for charity, we feel strongly that as much of the proceeds as possible should go to the wonderful causes supported by the show."

The service is managed by Auckland company Connexus, who could not be contacted.

Connexus have a separate agreement with the telcos.

Cornish said 2degrees would waive their cut, which she was not able to reveal because of commercial sensitivities.

"We've asked that Connexus pass this directly to the charity. If there's a season of Dancing with the Stars next year, we look forward to working together from the start to ensure the charities benefit as much as possible from their dancers' efforts."

Vodafone spokeswoman Meera Kaushik said they had a commercial agreement with the Connexus, which was the text-to-vote provider chosen by Mediaworks.

"It is Mediaworks that chooses the provider and fee structure of the text-to-vote service. All retail pricing is set by Mediaworks, not Vodafone, as part of their set up for DWTS."

Spark New Zealand spokeswoman Lydia Tebbutt said third party providers ran text-to-vote system and Spark doesn't take any cut from text campaigns run by registered charitable trusts.

"I can't speak on behalf of the third-party aggregators regarding any cut they may or may not take."

White said BDO, which is the independent verification service for all text votes on Dancing with the Stars, charge a flat fee for their services. This is then deducted from all text votes across the season.​