LIVE 8: WILL THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMASTIME AT ALL

The outcome of the G8 might not have been what everyone was hoping for, but at least Live 8 is going to leave a lasting legacy: it might not have made Poverty History, but it's certainly going to help keep EMI shareholders in bubbly and bath oliver biscuits: the DVD deal was stitched up in advance. And EMI is keen to suggest that it deserves to make a healthy profit off the back of the poorest people in the world, hinting that there wouldn't have been a show if it wasn't for their cash:

EMI spokesman Adam Grossberg declined to provide details about the DVD negotiations but said the label did pay a "multimillion-dollar advance to the Live 8 organization, which helped make the July 2 concert possible. Once we break even [after resulting sales], there will be future contributions. It was an exceptionally generous royalty rate."

Exceptionally generous, perhaps, but you'll note that EMI aren't actually doing this out the goodness of their dark little hearts. They're quite happy to swing by to make some money out of the misery in Africa.

Due out for Christmas, when there won't be snow in Africa, but there will be trebles all round in EMI's HQ.

The story also features some more figures towards helping us see if Bob came close to his two billion viewers he claimed. In the US, 2.2 million watched on MTV, five million for AOL and 2.9 million on ABC. We make that 10.1 million American viewers, which when added to the UK's nine million leaves quite a lot of ground for viewers in the rest of the world to make up to get to that 1,000,000,000 total.

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