MUMBAI: Constantly ahead of the digital curve, Zee TV has innovated year after year to make the voting process of its reality formats increasingly user-friendly. Be it by way of incentivising viewers to vote through a partnership with Freecharge in 2013 or pioneering the ‘Search and Vote’ mechanism with Google in 2015 to the more recent video voting feature added last year where viewers could watch a short clip of the contestants on Google before casting their vote, Zee TV has managed to optimize viewer participation in the public voting phase of each of its talent-based reality shows, making the winner of every season a true representative of people’s choice – Janta Ki Aawaaz.

This year too, the channel sets yet another benchmark to revolutionize the entertainment space by emerging as the first-ever brand in India to integrate the Google Assistant into the voting mechanism -- a first in the country. This is being done for its most prestigious annual property, Zee Rishtey Awards, making it possible for viewers to merely speak and cast their votes for their favourite stars. Experts at creating AI solutions, the young entrepreneurs at Arrow AI, powered the voting experience on Google assistant. By saying ‘Talk to Zee Rishtey Awards’ participants can choose their favourite stars and become a part of the digital India drive. The voting process for Zee Rishtey Awards has gone LIVE and viewers from across the world can continue to cast their votes till 13th October.

Talking about this pioneering voting initiative, Aparna Bhosle, Business Head, Zee TV, said, “Zee TV has always believed in innovation as the key driver to business success and year on year, endeavoured to offer differentiated content and devised original ways of marketing it. Zee Rishtey Awards is our single-most prestigious annual awards property that brings the entire Zee Parivaar together in celebration of their accomplishments. For the first time on Indian television, the viewers will witness the wedding of a real-life couple, Priya Singh and Sunny Kakkar amidst the awards ceremony. We are leaving no stone unturned to make this the most extraordinary experience, both on-ground and on-screen. Naturally, we want every Zee TV fan to be a part of this mammoth celebration we call Zee TV ki Beti Ki Shaadi. So, we started it all off by announcing the nominations of Zee Rishtey Awards across various categories at the couple’s Grand Roka celebration. And to ensure that the voting process reaches out to the largest denominator across the length and breadth of the country,  we are introducing, for the first time ever, a voting experience that is powered by the Google AssistantWe are the first ones to bring this technology into voting for the reality genre in the country, making it convenient for viewers to speak and cast their votes. We will be promoting this extensively across all our platforms – television, social and digital to enable better user engagement.  Zee TV will continue to devise novel concepts and curate exceptional experiences, setting new benchmarks of innovation in the industry.”

To cast their vote for their favourite characters and shows, all viewers need to say is ‘Talk to Zee Rishtey Awards’ on their Google Assistant. The Google Assistant will display detailed guidelines, nomination lists, and more. The Google Assistant is a conversation with Google that helps you get things done in your world, and extends to help you across devices, like Google Home, your phone, Wear OS, and more.