Millennium Live

Millennium Live is a cancelled international television special, which was an unsuccessful attempt to broadcast an international celebration of the beginning of the Year 2000, or the so-called Millennium. Reports claimed that the show was to have involved broadcasters in up to 130 nations. Millennium Live: Humanity's Broadcast was going to compete against the 2000 Today international broadcast that was supported by ABC in the United States, and led by BBC in the UK.

The programme was called off on 28 December 1999 when its organizers, the Millennium Television Network (MTN), announced that it had failed to obtain sufficient financing for the broadcast. MTN reportedly was not paying production and satellite companies for their services prior to the cancellation before MTN shelved their efforts to establish a global broadcast for the following New Year's Eve.

History

The Millennium Television Network (MTN) was formed by Live Aid's American producer Hal Uplinger to prepare and conduct the broadcast.[1] A series of early planning activities among international representatives reportedly occurred in Cannes in October 1998.[2] Millennium Live was planned as a 24- or 25-hour broadcast from 11:00 UTC 31 December 1999.

Pax TV (now known as Ion Television) of the United States had the exclusive rights to broadcast the show which they billed as Pax Millennium Live: A New World's Eve.[3]

Scheduled musical guests included Aerosmith, Bee Gees, Blondie, Chicago, Phil Collins, Destiny's Child, Ricky Martin, 'N Sync, The Pretenders, Sting, Santana and 10,000 Maniacs.[1][3][4][5][6] Bryan Adams, Simply Red and the Spice Girls were also sought as featured artists.[7]

New Year's Eve celebrations from various worldwide locations were to have been seen on the show.[5] Angelica Castro (Chile), Carmen Electra (US), Ramzi Malouki (France), and Zam Nkosi (South Africa) were also scheduled as a program hosts for the represented nations.[1] The studios of a television special were to have been hosted in Los Angeles on a set contained in a 90-foot geodesic dome at Manhattan Beach in the United States.[1]

The program was cancelled on 28 December 1999 with an announcement that MTN had failed to obtain sufficient financing for the broadcast.[6][8] MTN reportedly was not paying production and satellite companies for their services prior to the cancellation.[6] Pax aired a series of movies in Millennium Live's place,[9] and MTN never materialised its reported plans to establish a global broadcast for the following New Year's Eve on the real Millennium (2001).[10]

Broadcasters

The following broadcasters were reported as participants in Millennium Live:

Note: Italy's RAI was the only broadcaster that moved to the 2000 Today broadcast

See also
  • 2000 Today – the successful international television special, which was broadcast in 78 countries (including broadcasters from the cancelled Millennium Live TV special)

References
  1. "'Millennium' adds talent". Variety. 10 November 1999. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  2. "Pax TV To Broadcast 24-hour Millennium Show". Business Wire. 21 May 1999. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  3. Carman, John (29 December 1999). "`Oh, the Humanity' -- If World Ends, TV's Got It". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  4. "TV rings in New Year". Corpus Christi Caller-Times. 26 December 1999. Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  5. Johnson, Allan (26 December 1999). "Ready To Pop". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  6. Schneider, Michael (28 December 1999). "Pax's 'Live' for Y2K DOA". Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  7. "Headliners Named For MTN Broadcast". PAX TV. 7 October 1999. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  8. Carman, John (30 December 1999). "Producers Cancel Global Millennium Telecast". Archived from the original on 10 September 2006. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  9. Schneider, Michael (29 December 1999). "Nixed show irks global b'casters". Variety. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  10. "Satellite Television's Biggest Weekend: Live, Complex Millennium Networks". Satellite Today. 10 April 2000. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  11. "Artists Confirmed For 'Millennium Live... Humanity's Broadcast'". PR Newswire. 7 October 1999. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  12. "First to the Future - at a cost". NZ Herald. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  13. "Fim de Ano na TV" (PDF). Diário de Notícias (Madeira). 31 December 1999. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  14. "Millennium Live - Humanity's Broadcast - マルチメディア／インターネット事典". www.jiten.com. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
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