Richard Ashcroft News

After striking a sore note with viewers over their shoddy coverage of the Live 8 concerts last weekend, MTV and VH1 are making an effort to get back on key.

The networks will each rebroadcast five hours of commercial-free Live 8 concerts Saturday, a week after their initial attempts at covering the event were lambasted by viewers and reviewers alike.

The nets were faulted for featuring the exact same feed, rather than focusing on different sets from the 10 concerts à la coverage of the Olympics. Critics and Netizens also lashed out at the MTV and VH1 for cutting away from key performances to go to commercial breaks and overdosing on offstage banter, with little focus on the music.

"If you weren't there, how did you take in Saturday's mega-concert for African relief, Live 8?" Philadelphia Daily News critic Jonathan Takiff asked Thursday in his column.

"If it was on MTV, you were doubtless disappointed, even angry, as the formerly music-centric but now 'lifestyle'-oriented channel repeatedly demeaned the art and the purpose of the day, clogging the presentation with commercials and idle chatter."

Viewers flooded message boards with similar complaints.

"I was pretty appalled at the MTV/VH1 coverage," one frustrated music group user posted. "They cut away from songs before they were finished! Couldn't they at least let the artists complete one song? I tuned in to see the music, not watch commercials and listen to endless blathering by the VJs."

Some memorable moments that were missed by viewers included the final moments of the reunited Pink Floyd's finale number, "Comfortably Numb," as well as the bulk of Coldplay and former Verve singer Richard Ashcroft's acclaimed pairing on "Bittersweet Symphony." The coverage also focused heavily on the concerts in London and Philadelphia, with little attention paid to the performances unfolding in other countries around the world.

The ratings for the Live 8 telecast reflected viewers' lack of enthusiasm for the broadcast. Though 18 million viewers tuned in for some portion of the broadcast, MTV and VH1's combined audience average was a scant 2.2 million viewers from noon to 8 p.m., according to Nielsen Media Research.

Network executives were semi-willing to concede that mistakes had been made with regards to the coverage.

"At MTV and VH1, we're in a constant and candid dialogue with our audience," MTVN Music Group President Van Toffler said in a statement. "In the wake of our coverage last Saturday, our viewers have resoundingly told us online they want to see full performances from their favorite artists. As a result of viewer demand and thanks to the Live 8 organizers and performers, MTV and VH1 will air 10 consecutive hours from one of the most important musical events of our time."

VH1 will kick off Saturday's rebroadcast, airing the concerts from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at which point MTV will pick up the coverage, airing the concerts through 8 p.m.

The performances each network airs will vary according to their audience. While both nets will rebroadcast performances by U2, Pink Floyd, Orchestra Baobab, Coldplay and Paul McCartney, VH1 will air Rob Thomas, Sting, Dave Matthews Band and Maroon 5 exclusively, and MTV will air Linkin Park and Jay-Z, the Killers, Kanye West and Green Day exclusively.

Unfortunately for the music nets, viewers may not be willing to give them a second chance, particularly since AOLmusic.com's coverage of the event was praised across the board.

The site set a new Internet record last weekend after it clocked 175,000 simultaneous video streams during its globe-spanning coverage of Live 8. In all, 5 million viewers logged on to check out the performances between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.

AOLmusic.com will continue to make the performances available for download for the next five weeks.