MSN to stream Times Square fete

If you can't make it to Times Square for the famed locale's 100th New Year's Eve celebration, you can watch it from start to finish online. Microsoft's MSN portal said Tuesday it will provide an online broadcast of the historic party. The Webcast starts at 3 p.m. Pacific Standard Time when event organizers plan to raise their trademark crystal ball and runs until 9:15 p.m. PST after the ball's drop. Visitors to the MSN Video site will be able to follow the action in New York City via three live streams.

The company said it arranged for the Webcast through a collaboration with the nonprofit Times Square Alliance, as well as with Countdown Entertainment and Clear Channel Entertainment TV. Celebration organizers noted that Times Square has long pushed the envelope in the broadcast-technology arena, from its signature "zipper" newswire, introduced on the New York Times Building in 1928, to huge LED displays called Jumbotrons, first seen in the 1980s.