MTV Announces Broadcast of Concerts on World AIDS Day
MTV yesterday announced that it will sponsor two concerts -- one in Seattle, Wash., and one in Cape Town, South Africa -- to mark World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, Reuters reports. The Cape Town concert, which will feature Grammy award winner Alicia Keys, will take place on Nov. 23, and the Seattle concert, featuring Dave Matthews and Missy Elliott, is scheduled for Nov. 7. The concerts -- which will be sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Levi Strauss & Co. -- will be filmed and edited together without commercials and distributed free of charge to broadcasters on World AIDS Day. MTV estimates that two billion people will view the concerts on Dec. 1. The concerts are part of MTV's "long-running AIDS campaign" in which the network enlists the help of entertainers "to whom kids can relate," according to Reuters (Majendie, Reuters, 10/2).This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.