The BBC Sees Record-Breaking Viewership For Glastonbury

LONDON (CelebrityAccess) — The BBC announced a record-breaking year for Glastonbury viewership with fans streaming the broadcaster’s coverage of the iconic festival 65 million times on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, with 23 million tuning in on the BBC’s TV channels.
According to the BBC, there was more coverage of the festival this year than in any previous year, including live streams of the event itself, as well as more programming in the lead-up to the event, including an updated version of Glastonbury: 50 Years and Counting.
Highlights for 2023 included Elton John’s Sunday night performance at the festival, one of the final shows of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road farewell tour, which saw more than 8.6 million fans tune in.
Other highly viewed sets from this year’s Glastonbury included performances by Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens, as well as Blondie, Rick Astley, Fred Again.., Foo Fighters, Becky Hill, and Lewis Capaldi, the BBC said.
“This was an incredible year at Worthy Farm and I’m proud that we successfully matched the ambition and spirit of this iconic festival with our extensive coverage of it. It’s wonderful that record audiences discovered and enjoyed our Glastonbury output on TV, Radio and online, as I know the teams across the BBC and BBC Studios worked around the clock to bring more performances and content than ever before to people at home. A special thanks to Emily and Michael Eavis for allowing us to share the joy of Glastonbury with so many people across the UK.”
The viewership numbers follow the BBC’s renewal of a multi-year extension to remain the Glastonbury Festival’s exclusive, multimedia broadcast partner.
“We’ve worked in partnership with the BBC since 1997, and they’ve become an incredibly valuable part of what we do at Glastonbury. I think we’ve created something really special together and we’re delighted that they’re continuing to evolve their coverage with additions such as streaming Pyramid Stage performances live in British Sign Language. We’re looking forward to welcoming them to the farm in June and here’s to many more Glastonburys together,” Glastobury’s Emily Eavis said in May after the BBC announced the contract extension.