BBC seals new deal to broadcast next five Glastonbury festivals
The UK’s biggest music event will remain live on the BBC
The BBC has announced a new six-year “broadcast partnership” with the Glastonbury Festival, meaning that the corporation will continue to air the UK music festival until 2022.
The deal will see the BBC covering the festival during its 50th anniversary year in 2020 and the BBC’s centenary in 2022, with a total of five upcoming festivals broadcast (minus a fallow year in 2018).
“We have worked closely with a fantastic team at the BBC since 1997, it has become an integral part of what we do at Glastonbury,” festival organiser Emily Eavis said in a release.
“Together we have created something really special – two decades of historic live broadcast from many of the biggest names in contemporary music. We are all very excited to look ahead to another five Glastonburys alongside the much treasured BBC.”
BBC Director of Radio and Music Bob Shennan added, “This partnership confirms our ongoing commitment to placing music centre stage on the BBC, and presenting our programmes to a global audience via radio, online, television and BBC Red Button.
“As Glastonbury is one of the world’s leading musical celebrations, I’m delighted that the BBC will be its broadcast home until 2022, the BBC’s 100th anniversary year, bringing the magical joy of Worthy Farm to everyone, whether at home or on the move.”
Last year saw the BBC broadcast over 25 hours of Glastonbury across BBC1, BBC2 and BBC4, with another 60 hours spread over various radio stations (not including digital live streams). The broadcasts reportedly reached 18.9m people overall, roughly 31.9 percent of the UK population.
Glastonbury 2017 will begin on Wednesday 21st June and continue until Sunday 25th June
Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
