Glastonbury sets records for BBC

The BBC’s coverage of Glastonbury 2022 has set records for the broadcaster. 

The iconic festival made its comeback for the first time since 2019, with headliners including Billie Eilish, Sir Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar. 

Content was streamed a record 34.1m times on BBC iPlayer, with the streamer seeing 23 million live streams, the highest on record for a BBC programme brand. 

The broadcaster said that streams increased 116% on BBC iPlayer and 205% on BBC Sounds up from 15.8m and 765,000 respectively in 2019. 

The BBC also recorded solid coverage of the festival on its linear channels. Sir Paul McCartney’s Glastonbury performance on BBC One had a peak audience of 3.9 million and an average audience of 2.7 million and Diana Ross’ performance on BBC One had a peak audience of 3.8 million and an average audience of 3.1 million.

Lorna Clarke, BBC Director of Music said: “The BBC provided the ultimate armchair experience of the world’s best-loved festival this weekend with a dedicated Glastonbury channel on BBC iPlayer, 6 Music’s All Day Glastonbury coverage, performances from the biggest artists on demand on BBC Sounds and over 35 hours of coverage across our TV channels.”