BBC BREAKS GLASTONBURY RECORDS

The BBC's widely praised Glastonbury coverage achieved record-breaking viewing figures on TV and online, with 21m people tuning in for at least three minutes, up 12% from 2016. Ed Sheeran’s headline set achieved a record-high average audience of 2.9m on Sunday evening.

Sheeran was shown on BBC Two, where the programme had a record one minute peak audience of 4.1m viewers, replacing the previous record holder, Jeff Lynne’s ELO, from last year’s festival (2.4m average). Barry Gibb’s Sunday teatime “Legends” slot achieved an average audience of 2.48m.

Radiohead on Friday and the Foo Fighters on Saturday saw average audiences of 811k and 1.6m respectively, both well above their slot averages.

On BBC Four, Elbow’s surprise performance Friday evening had an average audience of 784k. BBC Four achieved its highest ever reach for Glastonbury coverage with a record 5.7m viewers watching for three minutes or more, an increase of 8% year on year.

Online, the Beeb live streamed more than 100 performances across six stages and saw 4.5m requests on BBC iPlayer. Traffic to its Glastonbury website throughout the weekend increased by 84% compared to 2016, and online coverage of the festival in the U.K. boasted 3.5m unique browsers, up 23% year-on-year.