MTV to broadcast ‘Youth Inaugural Ball’

updated 9:44 p.m. ET Jan. 11, 2009

WASHINGTON - MTV will be broadcasting from President-elect Barack Obama's "Youth Inaugural Ball" on Jan. 20, the cable network announced Sunday.

Obama is scheduled to speak at the event, one of 10 official inaugural balls. The Presidential Inaugural Committee has said the ball for people ages 18-35 will celebrate "the role young Americans can play to serve their communities." Tickets cost $75, half the price of most inaugural ball tickets.

MTV said the program will also include performances by "top recording artists," although the inaugural committee has yet to announce them. The broadcast will also include "footage from service activities around the country on Martin Luther King Day, in addition to showing young people imparting change real-time through major service projects taking place in the United States and in Kenya," MTV said.

ServiceNation, a campaign to get more Americans involved in public service, is teaming with MTV to produce the broadcast, called "Be The Change: Live From The Inaugural."

MTV, owned by Viacom Inc., had planned to host an inaugural ball at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington on Jan. 20. That event has been canceled.

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