MTV to rerun Live 8 uncutto appease miffed viewers

NEW YORK (AP) — In the television equivalent of a do-over, MTV Networks said it would air 10 commercial-free hours of performances today from last weekend’s Live 8 concerts.

Viewers will be able to see the entire sets of U2, Coldplay, Pink Floyd, Kanye West and Green Day on either MTV or VH1, and sometimes both, Van Toffler, president of the MTV Networks Music Group, said yesterday.

MTV took a critical whipping and received complaints from more than 2,000 viewers about their eight hours of Live 8 coverage last Saturday. Between commercials, interviews and reports from correspondents, MTV often showed only a song or two from several of the performances.

Mr. Toffler said the list of performers at each concert, held in 10 different cities, kept growing in the days leading up to the show — partly because MTV was helping organizers book acts.

“It just got bigger and bigger, and we couldn’t accommodate them all,” he said.

At the same time, MTV had made a commitment to organizers to explain the purpose behind the concerts, and many artists wanted to be interviewed about their reasons for being there, he said. MTV’s telecast stood in contrast to America Online, which offered most of the performances in their entirety live via the Internet.

Given the age of many MTV viewers, Mr. Toffler said he was surprised at how many wanted to see in full the reunion performance of Pink Floyd, whose most famous albums date from the 1970s.

As the complaints flooded in, Mr. Toffler said he contacted Live 8 organizers Wednesday to see if some of the performances could be rerun.

VH1 will air selected performances between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. EDT/PDT, featuring artists more popular with its older audience: Rob Thomas, Sting, the Dave Matthews Band and Maroon 5, for example.

MTV will show performances between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., featuring Linkin Park & Jay-Z, the Killers, Kanye West and Green Day.

Both networks will air U2, Pink Floyd, Coldplay, Paul McCartney and Orchestra Baobab. The full list of performers became available yesterday on the networks’ Web sites.