BBC to take Glastonbury to a global audience

24th February 2010

The BBC has for many years brought Glastonbury to UK viewers, capturing brilliant concert footage and behind the scenes interviews with the bands. Now for the first time, BBC Worldwide has gained the TV distribution rights and will be taking the Festival to music fans worldwide.
 
Jon Mansfield, Head of Content Development for BBC Worldwide Music commented: “In this momentous year, as Glastonbury celebrates its 40th anniversary, BBC Worldwide is proud and privileged to be able to bring the much celebrated BBC coverage to a global stage.  A Glastonbury performance is one of the most prestigious moments in many artists’ careers and frequently results in truly historic performances. BBCW Music are honoured to play a part in bringing those extraordinary moments to what we believe, through our substantial TV distribution network, will potentially be the Festival’s biggest global audience ever!”
 
BBC Audio, part of BBCW Audio & Music have held the radio rights to broadcast the Festival since 1985 and in this time have licensed the performances across 40 territories worldwide reaching an average of 40 million listeners. This is the first time that BBCW Music has held the TV rights to the Glastonbury Festival and BBCW Music hopes to take it to its largest ever audience. This deal is a major landmark for this business and will see BBCW Music become the sole TV and radio distributor for the 40th Glastonbury Festival.
 
Ben Challis, Glastonbury Festival’s Executive Producer for Television said: “We have worked with the BBC in the UK since 1997 and the BBC’s award winning coverage of Glastonbury just gets better and better. A move to BBC Worldwide Music seemed a logical step forward to cement this relationship and we look forward to BBCW providing the world’s music fans with superb extensive coverage of this year’s 40th anniversary Glastonbury Festival.”