OREANDA-NEWS. December 27, 2012. Channel One, in consultation with its text voting partners on TV music show “Golos” (Voice) – i-Free, mobile operators Beeline, MTS and MegaFon, and Red Square Group – has decided to donate all the proceeds from semifinal and final SMS voting on the show to a charity that helps sick children.

The TV music show “Golos” on Channel One has won the acclaim of millions across Russia and beyond. More than 800,000 TV viewers in Russia, the rest of the CIS and the rest of the world voted for their favorite contender in the semifinals on 14th and 21th December.

Seeing so much viewer attention to the “Golos” show and such a high level of voter activity, Channel One has decided to donate all the proceeds from SMS voting in the semifinals on 14th and 21th December, and the and finals on 29th  December, to charity. 

Before making this decision, Channel One had consulted with its partners on the project, which support interactive viewer participation in the show: the cellular companies Beeline, MTS and MegaFon, Red Square Group, and i-Free, which handles the technical side of the text voting.

All the viewer voting proceeds, received by Channel One, i-Free, Beeline and MegaFon, will be donated to Rusfund, a charity that helps children with life-threatening health problems. MTS will donate its own proceeds, coming from its voting subscribers, to the Konstantin Khabensky Fund, which will use the money for the treatment of sick children in Russia’s provinces.

The proceeds collected on 14 December went towards the treatment of these children: Kostya K., 5, diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (the money will be used to purchase medication for infection aftereffects), Angelina P., 3, diagnosed with a congenital pectus excavatum and sinistral thoracolumbar kyphoscoliosis (the money will pay for her multistage treatment at the Novosibirsk NIITO), and Anya M., 11, who is in treatment for a left eye trauma and regressing retinal separation at the ophthalmological clinic of Am Spreebogen in Berlin, Germany.  

The proceeds of the text voting on 21 and 29 December will go towards the treatment of those kids, who happen to be next on the waitlists of Rusfund and Konstantin Khabensky Fund.

“Service providers and cellular operators often contribute to SMS-based humanitarian and philanthropic initiatives,” said i-Free CEO Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov. “We were glad to join the Channel One initiative. I think the viewers will be happy to know that their votes will go two ways, helping their favorite contenders win on the music show, and helping some very ill kids, who are otherwise unable to afford expensive medical procedures.”