BBC Music
It is official, sun and soccer can have an effect on music. Well that is not entirely true, but according a to a BBC spokesperson, BBC TV’s Glastonbury coverage last weekend experienced a year on year 1 million drop in viewing figures and it is the World Cup and the fantastic summer that is being blamed by the BBC for the drop.
In fairnesss to the BBC, their coverage of the legendary music festival is truly excellent. I for one, spent most of my weekend glued to their coverage and enjoyed it very much. In total, 15.4m people watched the coverage that was aired on BBC Two, Three, Four and HD and included 150 hours of television and 60 hours of radio. The biggest drop in viewership was on Sunday afternoon, when England played Germany in the World Cup, when only 559,000 people tuned in.
I can’t imagine BBC’s commitment to Glasto will change following this drop but it might make them rethink their approach to their production and airing times. Hats off to them though because as someone who is yet to make the trip to Worthy Farm, I do feel compensated in my living room. Wouldn’t it be great if RTÉ aired something similar for one of Ireland’s many festivals? I’ll keep dreaming………