ABC to broadcast Live 8 concert special
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – ABC television has locked up U.S. broadcast rights for the upcoming worldwide series of Live 8 concerts for African debt relief, with plans to air two hours of highlights from the shows in prime time, the network said on Tuesday.
The Walt Disney Co.-owned network licensed TV rights to the Live 8 performances from America Online, a unit of Time Warner Inc., which also owns North American and European Internet rights to the shows, an AOL spokesman said.
AOL plans to stream six of the eight concerts simultaneously on the Web, free of charge, making the event one of the most ambitious tests of live online entertainment, organizers said.
The shows also will be archived and made available on demand for about six weeks after the concerts in Philadelphia, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Toronto, Tokyo and South Africa.
The concerts, organized by Irish rocker Bob Geldof, are intended to raise awareness of poverty in Africa and to press world leaders at the Group of Eight summit of the world’s richest nations to increase humanitarian aid and ease Third World debt.
Highlights for ABC’s two-hour special, airing July 2, will include performances by Paul McCartney, U2 and the chart-topping British rock band Coldplay, the network said.
The Live 8 extravaganza will be aired in about 160 countries in all, reaching an estimated 5.9 billion potential television viewers, organizers said.
“It’s the biggest entertainment event in television history,” said Kevin Wall, an executive producer of the Live 8 broadcast.
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