Editing Live Aid (section)

== Broadcasts ==
Broadcaster [[Richard Skinner (broadcaster)|Richard Skinner]] opened the Live Aid concert with the words:

{{blockquote|It's twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for Live Aid.<ref name="Skinner">{{cite book |last1=West |first1=Aaron J. |title=Sting and The Police: Walking in Their Footsteps |date=2015 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |page=92}}</ref>}}

The concert was the most ambitious international satellite television venture that had ever been attempted at the time. In Europe, the TV feed was supplied by the [[BBC]] via the [[European Broadcasting Union|EBU]], whose broadcast was presented by [[Richard Skinner (broadcaster)|Richard Skinner]], [[Andy Kershaw]], [[Mark Ellen]], [[David Hepworth]], [[Andy Batten-Foster]], Steve Blacknell, [[Paul Gambaccini]], [[Janice Long]] and [[Mike Smith (broadcaster)|Mike Smith]] and included numerous interviews and chats in between the various acts.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ellen |first1=Mark |title=Rock Stars Stole my Life!: A Big Bad Love Affair with Music |date=2014 |publisher=Hachette UK}}</ref> The [[BBC Television|BBC's television]] sound feed was mono, as was all UK TV audio before [[NICAM]] was introduced, but the [[BBC Radio 1]] feed was stereo and was simulcast in sync with the TV pictures. Unfortunately, in the rush to set up the transatlantic feeds, the sound feed from Philadelphia was sent to London via transatlantic cable, while the video feed was via satellite, which meant a lack of synchronisation on British television receivers. Due to the constant activities in both London and Philadelphia, the BBC producers only broadcast two songs from the reunion of [[Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young]] after 10 pm; the same applied to Rick Springfield and REO Speedwagon. BBC only broadcast one song from the [[BLACK SABBATH]] set around 3 am.  Ashford & Simpson - Solid was not broadcast on the BBC.

The BBC, however, did supply a [[Backhaul (broadcasting)|'clean feed']] to various television channels in Europe.

[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] was largely responsible for the US broadcast (although ABC themselves only telecast the final three hours of the concert from Philadelphia, hosted by [[Dick Clark]], with the rest shown in syndication through [[Orbis Communications]], acting on behalf of ABC). An entirely separate and simultaneous US feed was provided for cable viewers by [[MTV]], whose broadcast was presented in stereo and accessible as such for those with stereo televisions. At the time, before [[multichannel television sound]] was enacted nationwide, very few televisions reproduced stereo signals, and few television stations were able to broadcast in stereo. While the telecast was run advertisement-free by the BBC, both the MTV and syndicated/ABC broadcasts included advertisements and interviews. As a result, many songs were omitted due to the commercial breaks, as these songs were played during these slots.

The biggest issue of the syndicated/ABC coverage is that the network had wanted to reserve some of the biggest acts that had played earlier in the day for certain points in the entire broadcast, particularly in the final three hours in prime time; thus, Orbis Communications had some sequences replaced by others, especially those portions of the concert that had acts from London and Philadelphia playing simultaneously. For example, while the London/Wembley finale was taking place at 22:00 (10:00&nbsp;pm) London time, syndicated viewers saw segments that had been recorded earlier so that ABC could show the UK finale during its prime-time portion. In 1995, [[VH1]] and [[MuchMusic]] aired a re-edited ten-hour re-broadcast of the concert for its 10th anniversary.

The Live Aid concert in London was also the first time that the BBC [[outside broadcast]] sound equipment had been used for an event of such scale. In stark contrast to the mirrored sound systems commonly used by the rock band touring engineers, with two 40–48-channel mixing consoles at the [[front of house]] and another pair for monitors, the BBC sound engineers had to use multiple 12-channel desks. Some credit this as the point where the mainstream entertainment industry realised that the rock concert industry had overtaken them in technical expertise.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.allbusiness.com/information/internet-publishing-broadcasting/850869-1.html |title=Lessons learned since Live Aid: the challenge of bringing high-quality audio to live television audiences continues to change. Kevin Hilton considers how technology has moved on in the 20 years since Live Aid. |publisher=AllBusiness.com |date=1 March 2005 |access-date=6 March 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070106032927/http://www.allbusiness.com/information/internet-publishing-broadcasting/850869-1.html |archive-date=6 January 2007 }}</ref>