Roughly one out of three English-Canadians watched at least part of Live Earth on Saturday, which, according to CTV and BBM Nielsen Media Research, reached 8.3 million viewers during its 29-hour run on CTV and its new sister channels — peaking at 672,000 shortly after Madonna’s appearance at London’s Wembley Stadium.

The enviro-minded, multi-city concert was hard to miss — running on the main CTV network, plus MTV, TSN and the former CHUM outlets MuchMusic, MuchMoreMusic, Bravo!, Star! and the digital MuchVibe. The show marked the first time that CTVglobemedia made use of the newly purchased channels.

A spokesperson says the network is ‘very happy’ with the numbers and the performance of its new channels. ‘Our mission was to connect Canadians to the world with a made-for-Canada custom Live Earth production, and we feel we set the standard around the world in this regard,’ says Mike Cosentino, noting that some broadcasters used a single feed provided by Live Earth.

Live Earth‘s peak and per-minute average came in behind those of the recent Concert for Diana, however, which hit a high of 913,000 on July 1 on CTV and averaged 519,000. Live Earth drew an average of less than 400,000 between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. on July 7.

Cosentino concedes that longer shows have a harder time keeping viewers. ‘We see that at awards shows, too,’ if they go past two hours, he says.

In the U.S., the extravaganza performed below expectations on NBC, MSNBC, Bravo and the Sundance Channel. It drew just under three million viewers during primetime on NBC, and a total of some 19 million Americans on all channels, according to Variety.