Hope For Haiti Now

Hope For Haiti Now

Auckland, New Zealand, Thursday 21 January: “Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief,” which will be broadcast live on MTV New Zealand, today announced its lineup of superstar musical performances. The global telethon will feature performances by Wyclef Jean, Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Shakira, and Sting in New York City; Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, Stevie Wonder, Taylor Swift and a group performance by Keith Urban, Kid Rock, and Sheryl Crow in Los Angeles; and Coldplay, and a group performance by Bono, The Edge, Jay-Z, and Rihanna in a newly added London location.

Hope for Haiti Now will be broadcast live on MTV New Zealand at 2pm (NZ Time) on Saturday 23 January and will be followed by an encore broadcast at 9pm.

In addition to musical performances, Wyclef Jean in New York City, George Clooney in Los Angeles, and CNN’s Anderson Cooper reporting from Haiti, “Hope for Haiti Now” will feature more than one hundred of the biggest names in film, television, and music supporting the cause with testimonials.

All musical performances will be available for purchase for $.99 per song through the Apple® iTunes® Store beginning Saturday, January 23, with all proceeds benefiting Haiti relief funds managed by “Hope for Haiti Now” charities.

The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and United Nations World Food Programme have joined the list of relief organizations that will benefit from “Hope for Haiti Now,” which also includes Oxfam, Partners in Health, the Red Cross, UNICEF, and Yele Haiti Foundation. Proceeds from “Hope for Haiti Now” will be split evenly among each organization’s individual funds for Haiti earthquake relief.

“Hope for Haiti Now” will be the most widely distributed telethon in history, both internationally and across media platforms. The two-hour telethon will air on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1, and CMT on Friday January 22, 2010 at 8:00pm ET/PT, 7:00pm/Saturday 23, 2010 at 2pm NZ Time. “Hope for Haiti Now” will also air on newly added networks including PBS, TNT, Showtime, Bravo, E! Entertainment, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, CENTRIC, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, EPIX, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health, Planet Green, and Canadian networks including CBC Television, CTV, Global Television, and MuchMusic.

The event will be live streamed online globally across sites including YouTube, Hulu, MySpace, Fancast, AOL, MSN.com, Yahoo, Bing.com, BET.com, CNN.com, MTV.com and its localized websites around the world including mtv.co.nz, VH1.com, and Rhapsody and on mobile via Alltel, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and FloTV. "Hope for Haiti Now" will also air internationally on BET International, CNN International, National Geographic, and MTV Networks International, which is available in 640 million homes worldwide. “Hope for Haiti Now” will be the first U.S.-based telethon airing on MTV in China. Facebook and Twitter have signed on as official social media partners to help drive donations and tune-in to the telethon.

UNICEF NZ Executive Director, Dennis McKinlay, says UNICEF is pleased to be working in partnership with MTV to raise much needed funds for Haiti.

“The Haiti earthquake has created a disaster on an almost unimaginable scale. It is a major natural disaster that has left up to 200,000 dead and more than a million people homeless, many of them young people.

“Almost half of Haiti’s population are under 18. They have witnessed traumatic scenes of death and misery, and in the aftermath of the earthquake they are particularly vulnerable to the spread of disease and effects of malnutrition. Many have been separated from family and need protection from trafficking and other exploitive practices.

Mr McKinlay urges MTV viewers to show their support and dig deep during the ‘Hope for Haiti’ telethon.

"Hope for Haiti Now" is produced by Joel Gallen and Tenth Planet Productions, in collaboration with Viacom’s MTV Networks and George Clooney.

About MTV New Zealand: MTV NZ is a 24-hour music and entertainment channel targeting 15 -29 year olds on SKY Digital Channel 014 and SKY Mobile TV on Vodafone 3G. Visit www.mtv.co.nz for more details.

About MTV Networks MTV Networks, a division of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is one of the world's leading creators of entertainment content, with brands that engage and connect diverse audiences across television, online, mobile, games, virtual worlds and consumer products. The company's portfolio spans more than 150 television channels and 400 digital media properties worldwide, and includes MTV, VH1, CMT, Logo, Harmonix, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Nick Jr., TeenNick, AddictingGames, Neopets, COMEDY CENTRAL, SPIKE, TV Land, Atom, GameTrailers, and Xfire.

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