Live Earth Allows You To Put Down The Remote

Learning from what MTV and VH1 did wrong with the Live 8 concerts, NBC is making strides to show more of the Live Earth concert and less commercials this Saturday.

"In July 2005, Live Earth's predecessor, Live 8, drew so many complaints about commercial interruptions that MTV and VH1 acknowledged its mistakes and ran five hours each of commercial-free coverage a week afterward. This time, NBC Universal is working with concert promoter Kevin Wall and advertisers to cut commercial time by about 50% per hour. There will be more than 50 minutes of program an hour (compared with about 42 minutes normally)."

The concert airs on all of NBC's channels this weekend. The big program is NBC's 3 hours primetime broadcast on Saturday, but Bravo's coverage runs from 8 a.m. EDT Saturday to 2 a.m. EDT Sunday. Sundance Channel and Universal HD plan 22 hours of live coverage from 4 a.m. EDT -- when Live Earth kicks off in Sydney -- through 2 a.m. EDT Sunday. CNBC has seven hours beginning 7 p.m. Saturday. MSNBC will have live reports from New York and London throughout the day.