In 1997, the Eurovision Song Contest began to phase in public televoting to determine its winner, with a mass rollout beginning in 1998.
Initially, televotes completely replaced the previous system, in which entries were scored by regional juries.
Since 2016, most countries still use a televoting process and a jury to determine the results, the votes are no longer combined and instead treated separately.
[citation needed] Televoting is a more cost-effective method of democratic deliberation than many alternatives such as deliberative polling, as it does not require the participants to meet in person.
[citation needed] Common to other deliberative democratic techniques, it also tends to produce more reasoned decisions than "raw" opinion polling, because participants are exposed to various perspectives other than their own in the briefing materials that they receive.