Glastonbury 2023 drives record breaking digital audiences for BBC
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Editor
| 28 June 2023
Even though music critics expressed some misgivings about the quality of its headline acts, Glastonbury 2023 had no such problems among its TV audience with this year’s show hitting unprecedented levels for viewing and listening on the BBC up by 47% on 2022.
Glasto elton John 28June2023
Overall, video and audio content was streamed a record 50.3 million times across BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds by 27 June 2023. On BBC iPlayer, viewers streamed sets and Glastonbury programming a record 47.5 million times, up 49% on the year before.

The Glastonbury live channel proved the most popular on BBC iPlayer with the Sunday headliner slot from Sir Elton John at the Pyramid Stage, toppied the charts after it was streamed 4.3 million times. Saturday’s live channel came second, with 3.8 million streams, Friday’s live channel third with 3.2 million streams - and live coverage from the Pyramid and The Other Stage followed with 2.1 million and 1.9 million streams respectively.

The digital figures follow the news that a record 21.6 million people, over a third of the UK population, watched the BBC’s Glastonbury TV coverage with over 40 hours of linear programming available to audiences. The audience was up 7% on last year across linear television. Elton John’s headline set on BBC One received the biggest ever overnight audience for a Glastonbury set with a 5 min peak overnight audience of 7.6 million and average of 7.3 million, representing a 48.9% share.

Following a recent multi-year extension, the BBC is Glastonbury Festival's exclusive, multimedia broadcast partner. Glastonbury 2023 had more live coverage than ever before with a record number of hours on BBC One and more programming in the lead up.The BBC delivered over 40 hours of linear coverage across its TV channels, 85 hours of live radio broadcasts, content on BBC Sounds, and an increase in scale and accessibility on BBC iPlayer, with even more themed and live streams. Also on BBC iPlayer, audiences were also able to move between continuous live streams from the five main festival stages and watch the Pyramid Stage in Ultra HD.

Commenting on the audiences generated by Glastonbury, Lorna Clarke, director of music said: “This year audiences got to enjoy an unbeatable range of performances from this iconic festival wherever and whenever they wanted to. It’s fantastic that record numbers streamed our content – a whopping 50.3 million times on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds – as people got to witness the range and breadth of what took place at Worthy Farm over the weekend. From headliner sets to live shows and specially curated content, our new Glasto-Cam and the BSL stream, we had something for everyone.”

BBC iPlayer’s Glastonbury Channel continues until Friday 30 June with over 90 sets available on demand for the coming weeks.