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Haiti Telethon Will Stretch Across Platforms, Countries; Paste Tries Different Approach

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Tuesday night, CNN raised more than $7 million for Haitian relief during an quickly planned telethon on Larry King Live. That was small compared to the massive effort led by George Clooney and MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) will reach across the world. Star-studded telethon Help for Haiti Now will air live for two hours from LA, New York, London, and Haiti Friday night at 8 p.m. ET across more than a dozen sites, at least 30 U.S. networks (including all four major broadcasters), several Canadian networks, multiple mobile carriers and several international networks.

The global telethon, which even is supposed to air live on MTV in China, features some of the biggest names in music: Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay, Bono, The Edge, Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys, and more, with performances selling on iTunes for 99 cents starting Saturday. All proceeds from the telethon will be split equally between the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund; United Nations World Food Programme (WFP); Oxfam America; Partners in Health; the Red Cross; UNICEF; and Yele Haiti Foundation.

SEE ALSO: Haiti Update: $22 Million In Donations Pour In By Text Message

The online outlets taking part include YouTube; Hulu; MySpace; Fancast; AOL; (NYSE: AOL) MSN.com; Yahoo; (NSDQ: YHOO) Bing.com; BET.com; CNN.com; MTV.com; VH1.com; TV.com; and Rhapsody. Mobile streaming includes Alltel (NYSE: AT), AT&T (NYSE: T), Sprint (NYSE: S), and Verizon. It’s not clear if that includes video. More details in the release and at MTV.com. [Update: Gigya will power live chat across the sites; Facebook and Twitter are official social media partners.]

Paste magazine: Paste is trying to use music to raise fuins on a smaller scale. The music mag has set up Songs for Haiti, unreleased songs from Ludacris, Of Montreal and more than 200 other artists available as MP3s for anyone who donates money through the site—or says they have donated through other sites. Paste says it will donate 100 percent of the proceeds equally between Doctors Without Borders, The Red Cross, and Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund, but cautions that donations there are not tax deductible.

Update (Jan 20): Micropayment-centric social games site Zynga says 300,000 Zynga players have bought $1.5 million in virtual goods for the WFP effort. The funds came from FarmVille, FishVille, Mafia Wars and Zynga Poker. Farmville players alone raised $1 million and 100 percent of money raised went to the WFP.

Jan 19, 2010 9:24 PM ET

George Clooney Photo: Wikipedia / Nicolas Genin


Posted In: Entertainment, Music, Companies, Apple, Viacom, MTV, haiti

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