麻豆社

The Live Shows

Five (5) bands will go through to the live shows. This is the final phase of the contest, the bands compete against each other until there is only one band left. Ultimately just one band will be named the winner of Let It Shine 2017 and will join the touring musical, “The Band”.

The first live show: Quarter-Finals

During the first live show five bands will perform. The public will then be invited to vote for their chosen band(s). The top three bands with the highest number of votes will go through to the Semi-Final. The bottom two bands from the public vote will then perform again and the judges will pick which band they want to save or the judges may choose individual members from each of the bands to form a new band.

The second live show: Semi-Finals

The remaining four bands will perform. The public will then be invited to vote for their chosen band(s). The top two bands with the highest number of votes will go through to the Final. The bottom two bands from the public vote will then perform again and the judges will pick which band they want to save or the judges may choose individual members from each of the bands to form a new band.

The third live show: The Final

The remaining three bands will perform. The public will then be invited to vote for the bands. Once the vote is closed, the band with the highest number of votes will be declared winner of Let It Shine 2017.

Terms & conditions

If you are watching Let It Shine on 麻豆社 iPlayer, following through a website or any other time shift or, catch up or on demand service you should not vote since the lines will have closed.

Voting is only open to individuals as consumers from the UK, and not to any agencies, businesses and/or companies. Please note that 麻豆社 employees who are in any way connected to the vote, their close relatives or anyone directly connected in any way with the production of the programme or the provision of telephony services to the programme is not eligible to vote.

You must obtain the phone bill payer's permission before voting.

Opening and closing times will be specified on the programme.

Please be sure you carefully dial only the number of the band you wish to vote for.

Please do NOT call before the lines open, or after the lines have closed, as your vote will not be counted, but you may still be charged.

The 麻豆社 reserves the right to disqualify votes if it has reasonable grounds to suspect that fraudulent, excessive or suspicious patterns of voting have occurred or if it considers there has been any attempt to rig the voting.

All voting will be overseen by an independent verification service.

The 麻豆社 reserves the right to cancel or suspend voting at any time. In the event of any such cancellation or suspension, a technical failure or any other malfunction with the vote, the 麻豆社 reserves the right to arrange for the winner to be decided by a contingency arrangement.

For purpose of verifying any claim for refunds (where offered for telephone votes) or investigating possible online voting irregularities the 麻豆社 may use cookies, log IP addresses or analyse the information from your 麻豆社 account.

Users who vote online are subject to the 麻豆社’s standard (http://www.bbc.co.uk/usingthebbc/privacy/privacy-policy), (http://www.bbc.co.uk/usingthebbc/privacy-policy/)and (http://bbc.co.uk/usingthebbc/terms/terms-of-use).

The 麻豆社 will not publish this information or provide it to any third party without permission, except where required for enforcement of these terms. Please see the for more information at http://www.bbc.co.uk/usingthebbc/privacy/privacy-policy)

The 麻豆社 will use your personal data in accordance with our , which you can read on http://www.bbc.co.uk/usingthebbc/privacy/privacy-policy, and our (which you can read about on http://www.bbc.co.uk/usingthebbc/terms/).

For example, we may use your personal data for the purpose of running the vote (including processing refunds or investigating possible voting irregularities) and for the purpose of personalising our services where you have shown interest in a particular show, including voting online (http://www.bbc.co.uk/usingthebbc/account/how-is-the-bbc-personalised-to-me/)

The 麻豆社, its sub-contractors, subsidiaries and/or agencies cannot accept any responsibility whatsoever for any technical failure or malfunction or any other problem with any telephone network or line, system, server, provider or otherwise which may result in any vote being lost or not properly registered or recorded.

18. The voting in this programme accords with the 麻豆社's Code of Conduct for (http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-appendices-appendix-2-competitions/), details of which can be found on the (http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidelines/appendix2).

These Terms and Conditions are governed by the laws of England and Wales.

How You Can Vote For Let It Shine 2017

Voting is by telephone only or via the website

Telephone Vote: Voters in the UK can choose either to call from their landline using the long (11-digit) number for the band of their choice or from their mobile phones using the short (7-digit) number for the band of their choice. Please note that callers from the Channel Islands and Isle of Man should call from their landlines using the long (11-digit) number to avoid higher mobile charges, as the short (7-digit) numbers are not available in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for reasons outside of the 麻豆社’s control.

Please do not attempt to vote by calling a 7-digit short number from a landline.

The numbers to vote for each band will be given out during the live shows.

Vote lines are opened and closed at the times specified on the programme. Please do not call before the lines open or after the lines have closed as your vote will not be counted. Please be aware voting times may change.

Calls to the long (11-digit) number from landlines and mobiles cost 15p plus your network’s access charge. To vote from your mobile in the UK, please call the short (7-digit) number announced for your chosen band. Calls from mobiles to the short (7-digit) number cost 15p per vote and should cost less than calling the long (11-digit) number from your mobile so please, if you can, dial the short (7-digit) number from your mobile. You cannot text and you cannot dial the short (7-digit) number from a landline.

Online Vote: Viewers in the UK (including Channel Islands and Isle of Man) will also be able to vote online by accessing the following link: . Viewers who wish to vote online will need to sign in to a 麻豆社 account at . If you do not have a 麻豆社 account, you can register for one for free at . If you have any trouble registering or signing in, you can visit the help pages at . The online vote will be open during the same period as the telephone lines. Please check your broadband or mobile contract to check the cost of using data services.

The results of the telephone vote and the online vote will be aggregated prior to any announcements.

If you are watching Let It Shine on 麻豆社 iPlayer, following through a website or any other time shift, catch up or on demand service you should not vote since the lines and online vote may have closed.

If your call was to the long (11-digit) number from either your landline or mobile phone, you will have been charged 15p plus your network’s access charge for voting. The access charge is set by your telephone service provider and can be found by calling them or visiting their web site. More information about how these numbers work can be found at .

We state clearly on screen and verbally when the voting period opens and closes and that callers should wait until that time before casting their vote. There is a small chance that if you called outside this time that another network other than BT would charge for this call. If you have been charged, then notify your service provider immediately.

All voters are asked to dial carefully. The 麻豆社 has implemented a thorough testing schedule before each show to ensure correct audio is playing on the correct band line. If you have a phone bill you can send us, we can check whether the number you called corresponds with the correct band audio.

Because the phone lines are very active throughout the UK when the vote window opens, some callers may experience the engaged tone - especially those in rural/remote areas. We recommend that you call back within a couple of minutes when the traffic through your local exchange would have subsided. Engaged tones are controlled at local telephone exchanges and are something that the 麻豆社 cannot control. You can also opt to vote online via .

If after dialling the first four numbers of the premium rate number you heard a dead tone - then this means that you are premium rate barred and you should check with your telephone service provider about lifting the ban if you wish to vote Let It Shine 2017. You can also opt to vote online via .

Given the high volume of viewers and callers that some TV voting shows generate, it is possible for a very large number of people to pick up the phone simultaneously when the onscreen announcement is made. Sometimes this can cause some callers to get an engaged tone for short periods of time immediately after an onscreen announcement; however, any congestion tends to clear quite quickly. You can also opt to vote online via

No method of voting offered is available outside of the UK (where the UK includes the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man).

Like all the big shows, Let It Shine 2017 uses a voting system where at least the first eight digits of the phone numbers are the same for all bands, with only the last few digits of the phone number changing depending on who you want to vote for.

As the telephone network only uses the first eight digits in a telephone number to route calls to the voting system, it is impossible for calls for different bands to be treated differently.

Once calls reach the voting system they are answered in turn, on a first-come, first-served basis. Each answering point is instructed to accept votes for all bands; there are no dedicated answering points for the individual bands.

This means that your chance of getting through to vote will never depend on the band you wish to vote for.

Mobile Short Dial Codes (MSDCs) are the numbers to call (not text) from UK mobile phones where callers are charged a guaranteed fixed price for the call (15p for Let It Shine 2017 voting) regardless of their UK mobile telephone service provider. The MSDC numbers are shorter than a normal telephone number, typically between 5 and 7 digits long.

When MSDCs were introduced, calling the premium rate ‘09’ numbers from mobile phones resulted is a large variance in charges, dependent on the UK mobile telephone service provider. MSDCs removed that variance.

Calls to the Let It Shine 2017 ‘09’ numbers, whether from a landline or mobile, cost the caller 15p plus the access charge set by the landline or mobile telephone service provider of the caller. The impact has reduced that variance in charges, made the differences public and resulted in that variance being across both landline and mobile calls.

The continued use of MSDCs for voting therefore has the advantage that callers from UK mobile phone networks should pay less to vote as no access charge is applied to these calls.

When voting from a UK mobile using a MSDC number you will hear a vote confirmation message in the same way you would when voting by calling a ‘09’ premium rate number from a landline.

Using your UK mobile phone, simply dial the short number shown on screen for your chosen band/s, when the vote is open. There is one number allocated to each band. If you call while the vote is open you will hear a message confirming your vote. If you try to call when the vote is closed you will hear a closed non-chargeable message. You can’t text/SMS to the MSDC.

Text voting cannot be offered for Let It Shine 2017 due to the relatively short periods in which the vote is open and during which the result needs to be provided and verified. There is the risk of potential delays within the mobile networks at busy times which could result in text votes not being received within the period the vote is open. With a phone call, if the exchange is busy you will hear an engaged tone, however with text/SMS you would not know if there is any late delivery of your vote (causing it to not be registered). There are no such potential network delays with MSDCs other than busy tones at local exchange level with heavy traffic.

In addition, call attempts to MSDCs outside of the vote open period, or to numbers no longer in use, are non-chargeable to callers, unlike text where charges may still apply.

The advantage of using telephone calls for voting rather than text voting is that the caller knows at the time of the call that their vote has been counted and also that they have been charged for their vote. They will also know from receiving an engaged tone if they did not get through and that they can then just press redial to try again. The same is not true of text voting as the texter has to wait for a confirmation message back from their mobile telephone service provider which may take some time to arrive or which may not arrive at all.

Voting on Let It Shine 2017 via a MSDC from UK mobile networks will cost 15p per vote.

No. Calls outside the vote open period and those made to any of Let It Shine 2017 numbers not currently in use will not be chargeable.

It is very unlikely that callers will be charged when calling a closed vote line as we use free of charge messaging during these times. If you have been charged, then notify your service provider.

The Channel Islands and Isle of Man are covered by separate mobile telephone service providers who do not currently support voting by MSDCs. Viewers in these regions may still be able to vote by dialling the ‘09’ numbers for Let It Shine 2017 bands from their landlines or mobiles at 15p plus their network’s access charge per vote.

No. MSDC voting is only available from mobile phones, if you try to call a MSDC from your landline you will not be connected to the voting service and your vote will not be counted. In a very small number of cases, the landline telephone service provider may route the call to a local destination as it may match a “local” telephone number which may result in a ‘wrong number’ call being made. Such calls would be chargeable if they are answered.

No. Let It Shine 2017 voting will be made using online and telephone call voting only as this offers the caller the benefits of knowing at the time that they place their vote that their vote has been counted and that they have been charged. This would not be true of text votes.

Yes. It will cost you 15p plus your mobile network’s access charge per vote. The ‘09’ voting numbers should preferably only be called from your landline if you have one. If using your mobile, you should call the MSDC if you can as it will be cheaper at 15p per vote. No access charge is applicable on the MSDCs. If you decide to call the ‘09’ voting numbers from your UK mobile phone then you will hear a non-chargeable message at the start of the call asking you to call the MSDCs instead. If you remain on the line after the message then you will be able to vote for your chosen band but your UK mobile telephone service provider will charge 15p plus the network’s access charge per call.

No, you should not receive any text messages from Let It Shine 2017 or any other organisation as a result of voting using the MSDCs. The 麻豆社 does not sell on nor, except if required to do so for legal reasons, supply mobile telephone numbers to any third party. Text spamming is caused by companies sending unsolicited text messages to mobile telephone numbers. The 麻豆社 in no way supports this practice and takes great care to guard numbers from any unauthorised use. If you receive unwanted text messages from other companies that you are being charged for, you can contact Phone-paid Services Authority, the premium services regulator on 0300 30 300 30 (standard geographic charges from landlines and mobiles will apply) between 10am and 4pm Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays) or via to report this.

麻豆社 Helpline: 0370 010 0222 (standard geographic charges from landlines and mobiles will apply)

There are a small number of UK mobile phone users who are unable to call MSDCs, you should check with your mobile telephone service provider to see if you can lift the calling bar or simply vote by calling the ‘09’ voting numbers using a landline.

Not all UK telephone service providers, including some VOIP operators, allow voting by traditional premium rate 09 numbers.

The new MSDC numbers are intended only for voting via the UK mobile telephone service providers and so will almost certainly not be supported by the fixed line and VOIP telephone service providers.

No.

No, subject to the caps, all votes will be counted.

The MSDCs are provided by the UK mobile telephone service providers and are only accessible via these operators. It is also unlikely that calls can be made to MSDCs from UK mobiles when these are outside of the UK, as this would be subject to mobile telephone service providers’ international roaming arrangements with foreign telephone service providers.

No. 麻豆社 does not receive any revenue. Revenue from the calls (if any) goes to charity.

In order to cast your vote, you must sign in to a 麻豆社 account. If you do not already have a 麻豆社 account you will need to register before you can vote. Details on how to do this can be found .

Once you have created a 麻豆社 account you are then ready to go. You are advised to login to your 麻豆社 account before the vote opens.

During the live shows the presenter will let you know when the vote has opened. You will then be able to cast your vote online.

In order to vote on Let It Shine 2017 you will need to register for a 麻豆社 account at .

Since this time last year, we've made a few upgrades to your 麻豆社 account. Before you can cast your all-important vote online this year, we need you to sign back in and fill in a bit more info.

It only takes a minute, and it'll give you more ways to get the best out of the 麻豆社 but make sure you allow time to do this before the vote opens as you don't have long to vote!

If you can’t remember your password, you’ll need to reset it. You can find out how to do that here:

If the vote is not displaying correctly on your device then please try refreshing the page or using a different browser.

If you are using an ad-blocker then this may inhibit your ability to cast your vote. If you disable the blocker and refresh the page then you should be able to cast your vote.

First, we need to know if you are under 18, or 18 or over.

If you are under 18, we then ask you to provide your birthday. We also ask anyone aged 13 or over to provide an email address. Your email address lets you reset your password if you forget it. And it means we can get in touch if we need to tell you about something new, like a change to our terms of use.

If you are over 18, we might ask you for a stronger password if we think your password is not strong enough. We will also ask you to provide your full postcode, and if you want personalised 麻豆社 newsletters.

If you previously used to sign in with a username, you'll need to use your email address from now on if you are over 13.

And if you previously used to sign in with Facebook or Google+, you won't be able to any more. You will need to provide a bit more info before you can sign in, which you can find here: (/usingthebbc/account/why-cant-i-sign-in-with-social/).

We use your UK home postcode to give you relevant local info online and in any email newsletters you sign up for. Find out more about how we use your data here:

If you decide not to proceed with registering your 麻豆社 account then unfortunately you will not be able to cast your vote online, however, you can still always vote via phone. Just watch the show for the phone numbers or visit the Let It Shine website () whilst the vote is open for the phone vote information.

This may be because you are trying to register a new account rather than sign in with your existing one. If you voted last year then you should already have a 麻豆社 account so make sure you sign in here () rather than register it as a new account.

If you click on sign in and you are already signed in to your 麻豆社 account then you will be directed to the 麻豆社 homepage or you will remain on the same page. That means you are ready to cast your vote once it opens here.

Your 麻豆社 account details can only cast three (3) votes in each episode of Let It Shine 2017. You may have experienced voting more than 3 times however only your first 3 votes will be counted.

We have a separate page that can answer your questions around signing in to your 麻豆社 account, and also put you in touch with someone if you are unable to find the answer you need. Visit .

We have a separate page that can answer your questions around registering for a new 麻豆社 account, and also put you in touch with someone if you are unable to find the answer you need. Visit .

If you have not used your account in a while and have forgotten your password you will need to click on the ‘forgotten password’ link ahead of the show to allow enough time for a new password to be sent through. This will only be possible if you provided a valid email address when registering.

If you have any questions about your 麻豆社 account you can find some FAQs which might help.

Some parts of the 麻豆社 are only meant for certain ages. We need to know how old you are to make sure you can use the parts that are meant for you. Find out more about how we use your data .

You can decide if you want to receive these are occasional emails to tell you about 麻豆社 programmes and services or not. It’s completely up to you. We may personalise them based on your location and how you use the 麻豆社 online, to help you get the most from the 麻豆社. Find out more about the emails . You can also unsubscribe at any time.

Click here for the 麻豆社 account help pages, this has an FAQ section which may help.

If you are still having issues after going through the above link for help, then you should contact membership@bbc.co.uk.

If you have not used your account in a while and have forgotten your password you will need to click on the ‘forgotten password’ link ahead of the show to allow enough time for a new password to be sent through. This will only be possible if you provided a valid email address when registering.

If you’re having trouble voting online, you could try any of the following:

Keep refreshing the page
Clear your cookies and browser history
Update your browser version
Try a different browser
Update your device’s operating system
Try a different device if you have one such as your tablet, mobile or laptop
If you’re still having trouble voting online then don’t forget you can always vote by phone to make sure you cast your all-important vote. The numbers will be displayed in the show and online while the vote is open.

No, you will not be charged to vote online by visiting during the live shows. Please check your broadband or mobile contract to check the cost of using data services.

You can vote using your mobile phone, tablet or your home computer. Online votes on different devices using the same 麻豆社 account details will count towards the maximum number of votes per account.

Yes.

Throughout these FAQs “UK mobile phones” means mobile phones provided in the UK under UK contracts by Vodafone, O2, Everything Everywhere (previously T Mobile and Orange), Virgin and ‘3’.