BBC unveils digital Glastonbury plans

The BBC is gearing up for “the most digital Glastonbury ever,” with live multi-feed coverage, similar to that seen at the Olympics, planned for the iconic music festival. 

The BBC said it will air more than 120 live performances over the three days of this summer’s festival on TV, red button, online and radio and will live-stream footage from the six main stages for the first time.

The cross-platform online coverage will give viewers access to 250 hours of live coverage on PC, mobile, tablet and connected TV – including smart TVs and games consoles. The festival will also feature on TV channels BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three and BBC Four.

Mark Friend, BBC Controller, multiplatform across radio and music, said: “Just as we did with sport at the Olympics, our ambition this year is to bring our audiences even closer to the music they love at Glastonbury.”

Additionally, the BBC’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, will broadcast the festival on its bouquet of international channels around the world. A six-hour live broadcast of the iconic festival will run on its final day, Sunday, June 30.

The live stream and a 1x90mins highlight package will be carried on the BBC Entertainment channel in Asia, Latin America, Poland, Nordics and South Africa.

It will also be on the BBC Knowledge channel in parts of Asia and BBC HD in the EMEA region and Latin America.

In Australia and New Zealand the music festival content will be carried on UKTV.

Tracy Forsyth, VP commissioning, content, BBC Worldwide, ordered the festival coverage for the international channels.

She said:  “The scale and quality of Glastonbury and its consistently stellar line-up of music acts have given it a well-earned reputation as one of the world’s not-to-be-missed events, so we are excited to be bringing our viewers closer than ever before.”

The Glastonbury 2013 highlights and live coverage will be produced by BBC Music Television and Glastonbury Festivals Limited.