Voting on 'X Factor' "not a fix"

Claire Tavernier, senior vice president of Interactive at Fremantle Media, the producers of X Factor, has dismissed accusations that the show's voting is fixed.

Reacting to a comment made by Nicholas Wheeler, managing director of mobile news service ITV ON that the show's result was "produced", Tavernier said: "I don’t know who will win. It's not fixed."

Both mobile content providers were speaking at the Next Gen TV conference, and discussing the effectiveness of the show's different voting platforms .

Tavernier said: "Interactive TV is a crap platform. Its useless and keeps breaking down. We would get rid of it if we could, but ITV want to keep it. Fixed line is the best and SMS spreads the load, and gives several people in one family the chance to vote."

She also said that the fact the MacDonald brothers, who have been lampooned in the press, were still in the show proved the impact of having a whole region behind you. "That's how Michelle McManus won the 2nd Pop Idol, " she added.