Australian Eurovision fans are seething after an error with the official SBS voting line sent the system into meltdown and meant some Australian votes went uncounted or weren't received.
Australian viewers were given the chance to vote in the European Song Contest for the first time as part of Australia's one-off wildcard entry, but many fans who woke up early for the live 5am grand final broadcast were excluded from voting.
Fans trying to vote for their favourite countries received error messages telling them voting had already closed or the service they requested was unavailable.
Public votes make up 50 per cent of each country's final result, while the other half comes from a panel of experts.
It is unclear how many Australians voted and what proportion of votes went uncounted.
It appears people overseas also had trouble voting for Australian entrant Guy Sebastian, with Twitter user Adam Hickling from Kegworth, England asking if anyone else was having trouble voting for Australia.
SBS said it was working on addressing the problem with Australian votes but wouldn't have an answer until later on Monday because of time differences.
In a statement on its website, SBS said voters received automatic error messages from their telco carriers because they did not have premium services activated on their mobile phones.
"SBS worked with MNET, a local premium service provider as directed by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). MNET acted as an aggregator of phone and text votes for the Eurovision Song Contest," the broadcaster said.
"MNET were engaged by the EBU's mobile operator, Digame, who are based in Europe. Digame oversaw the televoting solution for all participating countries.
"MNET is investigating this issue with Digame."
SBS has been contacted for further comment.
Sorry, @SBSEurovision, but this is BS. I got that error twice, but also got an error telling me I'd voted too early. http://t.co/QZTovbCwG5— Jake the Yak (@jaketheyak)
May 24, 2015
Anyone else having trouble voting for Australia? #aus #eurovision @bbceurovision @Eurovision— Adam Hickling (@alhickling89)
May 23, 2015
Texted during voting. Just got these responses @SBS @Eurovision @SBSEurovision - not happy. pic.twitter.com/O24UHXSWTC— Kenneth Webb (@kennethw)
May 23, 2015
#AUS must have crashed voting lines #SBSEurovision ... Too many of us voting!! #Eurovision pic.twitter.com/AsV4Wm9DHe— Nadine Cohen (@NadineCohen1)
May 23, 2015
Australian voting lines in meltdown! #SBSEurovision #EurovisionSongContest #9 #10 #12 #13 @C_Badocha @mikeymymatey pic.twitter.com/zQBI6S7jyA— Adam Mazur MDIA (@atomikarts)
May 23, 2015
Nearly 1000. 2 hours after voting for #sbseurovision. Still getting messages about how they failed. Thanks @Telstra. pic.twitter.com/MxiehIbu2p— DameSaphy (@SaphyB)
May 23, 2015
But I wasn't too late twenty minute ago when I sent the text... Sigh. #SBSEurovision voting doesn't hold up. pic.twitter.com/7dzQHqXqHD— Tom Barbera (@heytom)
May 23, 2015
Dear @SBS , I voted just after voting opened why does only one vote of six count!?!? #NotHappy #SBSEurovision pic.twitter.com/ko7iGd8FVo— Clare Woodley (@woodleyc)
May 23, 2015
Texted during voting. Just got these responses @SBS @Eurovision @SBSEurovision - not happy. pic.twitter.com/O24UHXSWTC— Kenneth Webb (@kennethw)
May 23, 2015