Entertainment
Glastonbury 2022 breaks BBC record as streams on iPlayer more than double compared to 2019-Meghna Amin-Entertainment – Metro
What a legendary weekend!
It was a record-breaking weekend (Picture: AFP via Getty)
Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and Glastonbury is no exception, but after a legendary weekend of performances from the likes of Billie Eilish and Sir Paul McCartney, the Worthy Farm festival has actually broken BBC records.
While 200,000 fans descended to the Somerset fields, the numbers watching from home were immense.
The BBC has revealed that its coverage of Glastonbury 2022 across its digital platforms reached a record 34.1m times on BBC iPlayer and played 2.3m times on BBC Sounds.
Meanwhile, on BBC iPlayer a huge 23m streams were live – the highest on record for a BBC programme brand.
Popular sets from the festival included Pyramid stage headliners Kendrick Lamar and Olivia Rodrigo, as well as incredible performances from the likes of Crowded House, Diana Ross, Little Simz, Megan Thee Stallion, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Sam Fender.
There were even surprise appearances from Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl and Lily Allen scattered throughout.
The festival’s epic special guests included Olivia Rodrigo bringing out Lily Allen (Picture: Joseph Okpako/WireImage)
George Ezra surprised fans after a near miss due to laryngitis (Picture: Getty)
Streams increased by a staggering 116% on BBC iPlayer and 205% on BBC Sounds from 2019 when the festival was last held, meaning that the number of streams of the BBC’s Glastonbury coverage on the iPlayer was more than double the equivalent figure for 2019.
The broadcaster said it saw an increase from 15.8 million to 34.1 million streams from when the festival last took place before the pandemic.
There were also around three times as many plays for BBC Sounds – rising from 765,000 to 2.3 million.
The data from the BBC included viewing and listening from June 10 to June 27 and was compared to the same days in 2019.
Billie Eilish kicked things off in a mighty way on Friday night (Picture: Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)
Kendrick closed out the festival on Sunday (Picture: Samir Hussein/WireImage)
On TV, Sir Paul McCartney’s Saturday night headline slot on the Pyramid Stage, which was broadcast on BBC One, earned an average audience of 2.7 million and a peak of 3.9 million.
Meanwhile, Diana Ross’ Sunday afternoon tea time legends set, also on BBC One, claimed an average audience of 3.1 million and a peak of 3.8 million.
Sir Paul and Dave Grohl teamed up (Picture: Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)
Before the Beatles icon brought out Bruce Springsteen too (Picture: Harry Durrant/Getty Images)
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.
‘The party isn’t over yet, with over 90 sets and key tracks from the five filmed stages available to watch on BBC iPlayer – including Pyramid Stage performances in Ultra High Definition.’
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It comes as the clean-up operation on the Somerset site gets under way to return it from a pop-up city of 200,000 people to a dairy farm.
On Monday, co-organiser Emily Eavis shared a thank you message to attendees and declared the festival had been ‘surely the best one yet’.
In 2020, Glastonbury was held virtually, and the year after was cancelled entirely due to the pandemic.
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