ABC, NBC and CBS have announced that they will reverse a trend of reducing the time allocated to live convention coverage, after being hit by criticism over the 2004 elections. Meanwhile, PBS airs live and uninterrupted, Monday-Thursday 8-11 p.m. or to finish, while perspective and context will be provided by various guests.

Thus, starting yesterday, Monday, with the Democratic National Convention in Denver, all the three networks are dedicating airtime to the political events to the levels of 1996, which translates in one hour per night, including Monday through Thursday during both conventions. The next week, there will be the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn. However, NBC is short of one big man this convention year: Tim Russert, the Meet the Press moderator who died on June 13.

ABC will cover the conventions through anchors Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos; analysts George Will, Donna Brazile and Matthew Dowd; while "World News," "Good Morning America," "Nightline" and "This Week" move to Denver and St. Paul.

CBS will make use of Katie Couric, with Bob Schieffer and Jeff Greenfield; meanwhile, "The Early Show," "CBS Evening News" and "Face the Nation" are on location. Also, after each prime-time hour, Couric is to continue coverage with a 15- to 30-minute Web-only special on CBSNews.com and CNETTV.com.

Brian Williams, with Chuck Todd and Tom Brokaw will serve on NBC as the conventions' watchers. "NBC Nightly News" and "Meet the Press" air from the convention.