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Highlights from Glastonbury 2016

2016-06-27T16:05:45+00:00

Last weekend the yearly mud-fest that is Glastonbury Festival took place in Somerset. But don't worry if you couldn't get there - or if you are missing the festival already: we've rounded up the highlights from this year's BBC coverage.

On iPlayer you can watch full sets from Adele; Coldplay and Muse.

If you don't have time for a full set try these single tracks:

Coldplay and Barry Gibb - Stayin' Alive

Gabrielle Aplin covers "Yellow"

On Social Media you can watch Coldplay's tribute to Viola Beach and PJ Harvey read John Donne's ‘No Man Is An Island’.

Elsewhere you can read How Coldplay stole the show with a spectacular close to Glastonbury 2016; and look at photo articles, The 50 best pictures from Sunday and The best Ellie Goulding pictures from her set on the Pyramid Stage.

You can find all the BBC's Glasto content at http://www.bbc.co.uk/glastonbury.

Read also Glastonbury (avoiding the mud)
And The Other Glastonbury

Are you ready for a summer of sport?

2016-06-23T14:39:00+00:00

With a packed line-up of world-class sport this summer from France, SW19 and Brazil plus a return to Worthy Farm, you’ll be delighted to know that we’re broadcasting a number of extra Red Button streams throughout the Summer to provide additional coverage of all the big events: from Euros 2016 to Glastonbury, from Wimbledon to all the way on the other side of the world with the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. There’ll be more details on our Red Button Olympics coverage and services later in the year in another article similar to this one.

For the Euros, Glastonbury and Wimbledon, depending on the platform and the event, we will broadcast a number of extra streams on our standard Red Button and on some platforms, we’re also able to offer high-definition content – where those broadcast streams are listed on the EPG then you’ll be able to set recordings. Plus, there’s even more coverage available on your TV screen if you can access our internet-powered Red Button+ service. And, as always, all the coverage offered in Red Button+ will also be available on the BBC Music app, in the case of Glastonbury, and our BBC Sport app, in the case of the Euros and Wimbledon, and on bbc.co.uk on PCs, mobiles and tablets.

The purpose of this blog is to let you know what we’re doing on each platform for each event and to explain what you will need to do in order to access the extra coverage.

10 June – 10 July : the UEFA 2016 European Championship on the Red Button

The Euros are now well underway and for the most part, the BBC’s Euros 2016 football coverage will feature on either BBC One and/or BBC Four, and their high definition counterparts.

However, where TV schedule clashes don’t allow coverage on our main network channels, you’ll find some matches exclusively on our broadcast red button streams. In addition, there’ll be repeats of matches throughout the tournament and highlights packages of all the action.

On the cable and satellite platforms, we’ll also have a simulcast of BBC RB 1 in HD. Unfortunately, we don’t have access to enough capacity to be able to offer BBC RB 1 in HD via broadcast and on the EPG to Freeview HD and YouView users but matches in HD will be accessible via the BBC Sport app if your TV or set-top box is internet-connected and can access Red Button+.

Platform	RB 1	RB HD
Freeview HD / YouView	601	n/a
Freeview SD	601	n/a
Freesat	981	980
Sky	981	980
Virgin Media	991	990

June 24 – 26 : Glastonbury on the Red Button

Marking the 20th year of BBC television coverage of the festival, later this month there’ll be 25 hours of TV of the world-renowned Glastonbury festival across our main network services (BBC Two and Four, plus their HD counterparts). You can find more details about all the acts on TV here.

However, we know that for some of you that’s just not enough music so additionally, during the festival, there will be up to three broadcast red button streams and one of those streams will be simulcast in HD, all depending on how you receive your TV. Our three broadcast red button streams are all scheduled services covering six of Glastonbury’s stages (namely Pyramid, Other, John Peel, West Holts, The Park and BBC Introducing). Unlike the live streams on the website and our internet-powered Red Button+ service, our standard red button service has recorded performances from those six stages, but there’s no presenters, just pure music. A table of what’s available on each platform and on which EPG numbers is shown below.

Unfortunately, as for the Euros coverage and owing to capacity restrictions, we’re unable to offer more than the one existing Red Button stream to DTT viewers.

Platform	RB 1	RB 2	RB 3	RB HD (simulcast of RB1)
Freeview HD / YouView	601	n/a	n/a	n/a
Freeview SD	601	n/a	n/a	n/a
Freesat	981	982	983	980
Sky	981	982	983	980
Virgin Media	991	992	993	990

However, if you’ve got access to the BBC’s Red Button+ application on your connected TV, there will be six extra streams with live access from a range of stages. Our Red Button+ app is supported by Virgin TiVo and YouView devices as well as a growing range of smart TVs once they’ve been connected to the internet. You can find out if your TV set can get our Red Button+ service here.

At bbc.co.uk/music, the BBC Glastonbury website and BBC iPlayer via PCs, tablets and smartphones, you’ll also be able to access the same live streams of the six stages, across the weekend. There will also be around 120 performances available on demand at bbc.co.uk/glastonbury and BBC iPlayer so you’ve no need to worry about timetable clashes for your favourite acts.

And finally, for your fullest Glasto hit, don’t forget our recently-launched BBC Music app, available on mobiles and tablets. Go in now, highlight your favourite acts and come back during or after the festival to catch all their appearances as recorded for BBC Glastonbury.

27 June - 10 July : Wimbledon on the Red Button

Whilst the happy campers at Glastonbury are still packing up their tents on Monday morning, the tennis at Wimbledon gets underway.

On our standard broadcast Red Button service on satellite and cable platforms you’ll find a total of six red button streams in SD plus one of which will be simulcast in HD.

As is the case with the Euros/Glastonbury events, unfortunately there’s not enough capacity for us to be able to offer additional streams to all Freeview viewers but if you’ve got access to our Red Button+ app on your TV then see further below for more details …

For our broadcast red button services, the channel numbers are as set out in the table below.

Platform	RB HD	RB 1	RB 2	RB 3	RB 4	RB 5	RB 6
Freeview HD / YouView	n/a	601	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Freeview SD	n/a	601	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Freesat	980	981	982	983	984	985	986
Sky	980	981	982	983	984	985	986
Virgin Media	990	991	992	993	994	995	996

Even more tennis online and with Red Button+

In 2016, BBC Sport will deliver a wealth of Wimbledon coverage, enabling you to follow an unprecedented amount of action, whenever and wherever you want, with up to 15 live streams. Available online from bbc.co.uk/sport and BBC iPlayer and their respective apps for mobiles, tablets and connected TVs, as well as on Red Button+, you’ll be able to access the widest range of on-demand and interactive content for Wimbledon, including:

Up to 15 live HD video streams – giving you the most choice during the busy early rounds
All the action wherever you are, on the devices you use –check out BBC Sport’s live coverage page, which will bring together the multi-court video player, text commentary and the best audience interaction in one place
Highlights and full-length replays of key matches – available on-demand to ensure you can catch up on the best of SW19

How to get our additional streams on your TV

If you have Sky, you should not have to do anything. If you do have a problem receiving any of our channels, you can try turning your Sky set-top box off at the mains, waiting 30 seconds and turning it back on again. If that doesn’t resolve your problem you can find more help at www.sky.com/helpcentre.
If you have Virgin Media the new streams should appear automatically. If you do have a problem receiving any of our channels, you can find more help at Virgin’s website. For Virgin TiVo users the broadcast Red Button streams will be listed in the 980s in the guide – alternatively, pressing red when you’re watching on one of our TV channels will take you to the additional coverage and expanded offer on our BBC Red Button+ service.
If you have Freesat and you do not pick up the new channels automatically, you may need to put your digital box or TV into standby for 30 seconds and then switch it back on again. If the channels are still unavailable then carry out a Freesat channel retune. Full instructions can be found in the manual for your digital TV or box. Further help with retuning can be found at www.freesat.co.uk or by calling the Freesat customer support team on 08450 990 990. For those that need it, full DSAT transponder information can be found on our Reception Advice page.
Red Button+ is only available on certain platforms and smart TVs which also need to be internet-connected. You can find more details here.

Kieran Clifton is Director, BBC Distribution & Business Development.

Glastonbury (avoiding the mud)

2016-06-23T12:17:40+00:00

From June 22nd-26th, Worthy Farm hosts the 34th Glastonbury Festival. If you weren't able to get tickets, fear not, over the weekend the BBC has a plethora of coverage from the festival:

On Television:

The BBC One Show hops channels to kick off BBC Two's coverage on Friday at 7pm. Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings will see Jo Whiley, Mark Radcliffe, Lauren Laverne, Huw Stephens and roving reporters Gemma Cairney and Martin Dougan introduce a wide range of performances from across the site.

Over the weekend BBC Four will be broadcasting performances from artists including James, Foals, PJ Harvey, New Order and Charles Hazlewood conducting members of the Paraorchestra for a performance of Philip Glass's Heroes Symphony, inspired by Bowie's 1977 album Heroes.

Broadcasts from Glastonbury will also be available on BBC Red Button.

On Radio:

Between them, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 1Xtra, BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music will broadcast over 50 hours of coverage from the festival.

Online:

You can dart between the Pyramid, Other, West Holts, Park, John Peel and BBC Introducing Stages without donning your wellies via BBC Music. You can even curate your own 'bands to see schedule' (without fear of losing your print-out in a field or worrying your phone battery might die) by signing in/logging on to My Glastonbury.

If it's all too much for one weekend, over 100 performances will then be available to watch until Tuesday 26th July 2016, on the BBC Glastonbury website and BBC iPlayer.

At your leisure:

Have a listen to the BBC's Glastonbury playlist on BBC Music, or download the BBC Music app to get tailor made content on your phone or tablet - watch sets from your favourite artists and catch-up with the best interviews from the day.

Just for fun:

Take the 'How Glastonbury are you?' quiz (we got a fair to middling 5/10).

Or read good and bad memories people have shared from past festivals in #GlastWhoa or#GlastWoe.

Share the love:

See something that blows your mind? You can embed a video by pressing play on your selected clip and using the icon to copy the embed code. To share on your social media accounts click on the green box beneath the time stamp.

Keep up to date with what's going on at the festival via @bbcglasto on twitter.

Summer 2015 on BBC Red Button

2015-06-18T12:52:00+00:00

I'm pleased to let you know that we’ll again be broadcasting a number of extra Red Button streams to provide additional coverage of Glastonbury and Wimbledon. Depending on the platform, we will broadcast up to six standard definition and one high definition streams. And even more coverage will be available on your TV screen if you can access our recently revamped internet-powered Red Button+ service. Plus, as always, all the coverage offered in Red Button+ will also be available on bbc.co.uk on PCs, mobiles and tablets.

The purpose of this blog is to let you know what we’re doing on each platform and to explain what you will need to do in order to access the extra coverage.

Glastonbury on the Red Button

During Glastonbury there will be up to three broadcast streams, depending on how you receive your TV. A table of what’s available on each platform and on which EPG numbers is shown below.

Unfortunately, there is no appropriate Freeview capacity available meaning we’re unable to offer more than the one existing Red Button stream to viewers with SD-only equipment. However, we’re pleased to be able to offer two extra Red Button streams to viewers with a Freeview HD TV or set-top box or a YouView set-top box. I should note that although a Freeview HD compatible receiver is required, these additional streams will be in SD.

If you’ve got access to the BBC’s Red Button+ application on your connected TV then after 9pm each evening during the festival, there will be six extra streams with live access from a range of stages. Our Red Button+ app is supported by Virgin TiVo and YouView devices as well as a growing range of Smart TVs once they’ve been connected to the internet. You can find out if your TV set can get our new Red Button+ service here. You’ll also be able to access the live streams at bbc.co.uk/music via PCs, tablets and smartphones.

Wimbledon on the Red Button

No sooner than the campers at Glastonbury are packing up their tents on Monday morning, then the tennis at Wimbledon gets underway.

On the standard broadcast Red Button service on satellite and cable you’ll find five additional streams in SD and one in HD.

As is the case for the Glastonbury streams, we don’t have the capacity to offer additional streams to Freeview viewers with SD-only equipment. If you have a Freeview HD receiver or a YouView set-top box then you’ll be able to receive two additional SD streams through the standard broadcast Red Button service.

Channel numbers are in the table below. Due to a shortage of SD channel numbers on Sky, we are unable to EPG list three of the streams. So, on the Sky platform, the content of these streams will only be accessible via Red Button.

Even more tennis online and with Red Button+

In 2015, BBC Sport will deliver its biggest ever digital Wimbledon, enabling you to follow an unprecedented amount of action, whenever and wherever you want, with up to 15 live streams. Available online from bbc.co.uk/sport and through the BBC Sport apps for mobiles and tablets and on Red Button+ and the Sport App on connected TVs, you’ll be able to access the most on-demand and interactive content for any Wimbledon to date, including:

Up to 15 live HD video streams – up from 12 last year, giving you even more choice during the busy early rounds
All the action wherever you are, on the devices you use –from BBC Sport’s live coverage page, which will bring together the multi-court video player, text commentary and the best audience interaction in one place
Highlights and full-length replays of key matches – available on-demand to ensure audiences can catch up on the best of SW19

How to get the additional streams on your TV

If you have Freeview HD or YouView your receiver may well pick up the changes automatically but if not you will need to retune; Digital UK’s TV retune website gives advice on how to do this. (If you’re using a Freeview SD receiver, you should already be able to access our existing Red Button stream on channel 601 but if for some reason you don’t then again a retune should solve this for you.)
If you have Sky, you should not have to do anything. If you do have a problem receiving any of our channels, you can try turning your Sky set top box off at the mains, waiting 30 seconds and turning it back on again. If that doesn’t resolve your problem you can find more help at www.sky.com/helpcentre.
If you have Virgin Media the new streams should appear automatically. If you do have a problem receiving any of our channels, you can find more help at Virgin’s website. For Virgin TiVo users the broadcast Red Button streams will be listed in the 980s whilst pressing red when you’re watching on one of our TV channels will take you to the additional coverage on our BBC Red Button+ service.
If you have Freesat and you do not pick up the new channels automatically, you may need to put your digital box or TV into standby for 30 seconds and then switch it back on again. If the channels are still unavailable then carry out a Freesat channel retune. Full instructions can be found in the manual for your digital TV or box. Further help with retuning can be found at www.freesat.co.uk or by calling the Freesat customer support team on 08450 990 990. For those that need it, full DSAT transponder information can be found on our Reception Advice page.
Red Button+ is only available on certain platforms and smart TVs which also need to be internet-connected. You can find more details here.

Kieran Clifton is Director, BBC Distribution & Business Development

Making Radio at Glastonbury

2014-06-27T12:50:53+00:00

As editor of afternoon programmes on BBC Radio 2 I look after shows including Steve Wright In The Afternoon, Steve Wright’s Sunday Love Songs, Simon Mayo and Jo Whiley – a fantastically varied job, working with a team who create a huge range of programming.

Right now, I'm sitting in a slightly damp field. We've just finished a great Radio 2 Breakfast Show with Chris Evans and Dolly Parton, who spoke to Chris on air, was right - 'there may or may not be a lot of mud'. Behind me, there's a band warming up for a live performance in the BBC Music Tepee later today. And it's only day one - there's a whole lot more to come.

I've worked at Glastonbury as an assistant producer, producer and executive producer for both Radio 1 and BBC 6 Music previously and last year Bob Shennan, Director of BBC Music, asked me to project lead all the radio networks as part of an ambition to have a joined up team with all pop radio networks, TV and interactive. This meant not one network, channel or digital platform ‘owned’ Glastonbury, but instead, there's something there for everyone and we wanted to provide the right content on the right place to suit our different audiences.

Glastonbury is not only wildly exciting but a ridiculously important cultural event that offers something for everybody, a bit like the BBC. The BBC has a broad family of radio and TV brands, and the full range of acts performing at Glastonbury doesn’t fit naturally on just one. Our aim is to give someone sitting at home a choice of performances and programmes, as well as access to the bits they're looking forward to hearing or seeing. Whichever service they choose to listen to or watch - we want this to be the next best thing to actually being at the festival itself and that the fun, atmosphere, excitement and magic of the festival completely are all brought to life by the live music performances, creative content, interviews and our presenters on the BBC.

Most of my role happens in the planning – which takes months in advance, working with my colleagues at Radio 1, 1 Xtra and BBC 6 Music, TV and interactive, who look after everything online and Red Button. With radio, we decide which live music and guests should go on which network so we can broadcast as much of the festival as possible and working with producers to deliver this! When I am at the festival my role varies – I'll be out in the field with the production teams helping with live inserts into the shows throughout the day, speaking to teams about any queries about anything from editorial questions regarding their programmes to health and safety. In the evening I may be in the sound truck making sure the live music is ready for broadcast, or I could be liaising with our live events team to ensure everything is ready and good for broadcast. I work closely with my TV colleagues to make sure the presenters know exactly where they're meant to be, speaking to record companies to make sure their artists are turning up in the right place and at the right time for performances and speaking to the live programmes back in London to make sure they have what they need. I also work a lot with the interactive team and visualisation team to ensure everything is communicated (guests, content, performances). And of course, working with the Eavis family and their Glastonbury team to make sure we know about any last minute show changes or issues, and any secret shows that are scheduled.

It’s an amazing project and I feel massively privileged to be part of not only the festival itself, but of such a high quality coverage provided by the BBC.

And after today i'll head back to the hotel to set my alarm for an early wake up and come back and do it all again. It's a dream job.

Read Glastonbury 2014: The weird and wonderful worlds that lie beyond the big stages and Ben Murray's recollections of his first Glastonbury visit.
Follow the Glastonbury action on twitter @bbcglasto
Watch live performances online and on redbutton from Friday 27 June

Fond memories: Glastonbury and the BBC

2014-06-25T11:34:02+00:00

One of the wonderful things about the Glastonbury Festival is that it means many different things to many different people. So diverse is its creative ethos, so rich its history, so deep its impact on the UK’s cultural landscape over the last (almost) half century, that it has grown from being a somewhat quirky fringe event to become a key pillar of the national calendar.

Just what it means to its legions of devotees is up for debate: where some may recall the radicalism of its early years, others will focus on the cavalcade of acclaimed artists who have graced the Pyramid Stage. Where some might cite a change of ethos, others will point to innovation and evolution. I think its development over the years more fully reflects wider changes in society. But whether it marks a significant rite of passage, a spiritual quest, or just a chance to have a good time, what is certain is that Glastonbury remains a unique and very special event, with a beauty and flavour all of its own.

To me, it will always be associated with the magical times I spent there during my childhood. And this year’s festival has a particular resonance because it marks the 30th anniversary since I first set foot on that hallowed ground.

Yes, it was in 1984, as an eager and excited nine-year-old boy, that I had my first taste of Glastonbury, which I remember, felt like stepping into another world - a kind of pastoral Utopia in which the rules of the classroom no longer applied and the restriction of bedtime no longer held dominion. It was this palpable sense of freedom that I recall most vividly; a feeling that became bound up with the festival, which gave me a chance to participate in a version of life that seemed anything but ordinary.

Portrait of the author as a young boy (Glastonbury Festival, 1984)

After this first initiation, we went pretty much every year after that, and each occasion is redolent with many fond, and the odd not-so-fond, memories. There was the time we travelled in a converted bus as a kind of spurious homage to the original Merry Pranksters (fond); the night we spent sat round the campfire chatting to the Hothouse Flowers (fond); the hours spent in the children’s field learning to juggle and stilt-walk (fond); and then there was the job of emptying our camp’s chemical toilet, a task always given to us kids as a lesson that not everything in life is easy, which became a yearly ritual (not-so-fond).

Many of my best memories are associated, not with seeing the famous headline acts, but with the random and incredible things you see when wandering about the site: surreal theatre troupes, circus entertainers, impromptu dance parties, food from around the world (yes, it was here that I tasted my first ever doner kebab), and exciting music and performance around every corner.

In ‘84, I can vividly recall being astounded by a bespectacled man playing guitar, whose name struck my young mind as being very peculiar. He was called Elvis Costello. And since then there have been too many incredible musical memories to list, but watching Dave Grohl drum with QOTSA in 2002 was, as a devoted Nirvana fan, truly wonderful to behold. So often though, it’s the moments you don’t expect that turn out to be among the best (somewhat of a rule for Glastonbury), like the sunny Sunday afternoon Galliano played on the main stage in 1993 and inspired a decidedly indolent crowd into a frenzy of what might, for want of a better term, be described as Acid-Jazzercise.

In the years I couldn’t go, it was to the BBC that I turned to fill the void. I still can’t quite believe I missed Radiohead’s headline slot in 1997 but the atmospheric BBC coverage went a good way to make up for it. And the same goes for Blur’s set in 2009.

The BBC/Glastonbury connection goes back many years of course, but I was interested to find out a bit more, and so I did a little digging in the archive and at the British Library, and although my findings aren’t comprehensive, they do offer a sketch of this rich history.

The furthest back I uncovered was actually a television broadcast of Fela Kuti’s performance in 1984, which was shown four years later on BBC Two - and Radio 1 aired several live sets from the 85 festival including The Style Council, The Boomtown Rats and Hugh Masekela.

Of course, it was through Radio 1 that the BBC’s coverage of Glastonbury developed in the coming years with a variety of sets broadcast through the late Eighties and early Nineties, including single In Concert recordings of a wide range of artists such as Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, Suzanne Vega, World Party, Joan Armatrading and The Levellers. Many of these concerts were made available on vinyl via the BBC Transcription Service which was subscribed to by radio stations and broadcasters around the world, who could then feature the content on their own shows.

Glastonbury on vinyl featuring Pixies in 1989

In 1993 John Peel and Andy Kershaw broadcast live from the site for Radio 1 and Johnnie Walker hosted a highlights show on the station which featured many of the acts playing that year, including Robert Plant, The Black Crowes, Alison Moyet and Christy Moore. Peel returned the following year, which saw him present highlights and a live set from Orbital. Other live sets in 1994 came from Tom Robinson, Saint Etienne and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Steve Lamacq and Jo Whiley joined the party with a Christmas show that year, ‘Evening Session Live Rewind’, which featured Ride’s set at the festival.

Mark Radcliffe, Johnnie Walker and John Peel all presented from Glastonbury in 1995, but it was 1997 that saw the first live BBC Television broadcast (following on from Channel 4’s coverage in ‘94 and ‘95) in a year which saw performances from The Prodigy, Smashing Pumpkins, Pavement, Van Morrison and a lot of mud!

Since then the BBC’s coverage has gone from strength to strength and now includes comprehensive TV programming across BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three and BBC Four and radio programming on Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio 2 and 6 Music. Last year saw digital coverage really take off and this year’s offering is just as ambitious, with live streams from six stages available on BBC Online and Red Button, while BBC iPlayer will feature highlights from across the weekend for 30 days after the festival finishes. In addition, BBC Introducing will again be at Worthy Farm giving the chance to new, up-and-coming artists to play at one of the world’s greatest festivals.

I’m afraid I’ll be spending my 30th anniversary watching from afar and so making a lot of use of everything the BBC has to offer, so I’ll finish with a few tips on what to keep an eye out for.

The evergreen Dexys (Acoustic Tent, Saturday) and their live shows are pitch-perfect, theatrical and irreverent; Kate Tempest is a young, passionate and forthright performance poet who plays the Left Field stage on Sunday night; Royal Blood are a fabulously raw rock duo and play the John Peel Stage on Saturday afternoon; they are followed by Wolf Alice, who are like a young mix of Ride, MBV and Sonic Youth and are just brilliant; Radiohead’s supremely talented Jonny Greenwood plays with the London Sinfonietta first thing on Friday on the West Holts Stage; and finally, the legend that is Dolly Parton will no doubt wow the festival on the Pyramid Stage on Sunday afternoon.

Ben Murray is Editor of the BBC Media Centre.

Read Glastonbury 2014: The weird and wonderful worlds that lie beyond the big stages
Also Bob Shennan's blog Preparing for Glastonbury 2014
Follow the Glastonbury action on twitter @bbcglasto
Watch live performances online and on redbutton from Friday 27 June

Glastonbury 2014: The weird and wonderful worlds that lie beyond the big stages

2014-06-24T09:34:04+00:00

1997 was the first year BBC TV went to Glastonbury; it was a muddy year and what surprised me the most was the texture of the mud which was deep, dark and gluey and pulled at your wellies. We only filmed two stages and one of them nearly sank. We were terrified and then exhilarated and delighted to pull through. The second year was also muddy and our operation expanded to include a trial run for what would launch a month or two later as BBC Choice, the predecessor for BBC Three.

Alison Howe now executive produces the BBC's TV coverage and works closely with colleagues in online and red button to deliver the BBC's ever expanding multi-platform offer from five Glastonbury stages and BBC Introducing. In 1998 she was an Assistant Producer overseeing what would become BBC Choice from a VW van. I seem to remember her overlaying shots from the tall hoist camera that overlooks the Pyramid Stage of a crescent moon over the feed of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds from the main stage scanner. If you can't play with a trial service, what can you play with?

The arrival of digital TV, online, red button and live streaming have all continued to expand and enrich the BBC's offer from Glastonbury and to give our audiences the chance to make more and more of their own choices. This year we'll stream around 100 artists from across those many stages and that doesn't include the unique acoustic performances we'll offer on BBC Two, BBC Three and across our radio coverage from the BBC Music tent.

What the BBC increasingly does is offer different audiences different choices. Some people may want to flick from channel to channel, or stream to stream as though flying across site without the hassle of mud or crowds. Meanwhile, different BBC TV channels still offer appointment to view armchair moments when you can tune in to the key headliners absolutely live. Sure, we can't always go live on TV to artists pre-watershed but come the darkness and Metallica or, say, Disclosure on BBC Three, we'll be there.

Glastonbury offers the ultimate broadcast challenge because it's a multitude of artists playing on a variety of stages on a farm in the Vale of Avalon. Most of the BBC staff and freelancers who work at Glastonbury go year on year and quite a few of them have been going since the 90s. It's what they do, come rain or shine. Last year, 19 million people watched our TV coverage and a record 1.5 million unique browsers accessed the BBC’s digital Glastonbury coverage – with over 6m viewers on the BBC’s Red Button over the weekend and 42 per cent of total traffic across the weekend coming from mobiles and tablets.

Without many broadcast trucks, miles of cable, fibre-optics and the many other things our Engineering Manager Peter Taylor understands so we don't have to, BBC at Glastonbury wouldn't have a prayer. Without our Production Manager Jo Housden no one would know where to go, when to eat, when to come on site or how.

The small editorial production team love working on three TV channels for which we are making every kind of TV at once. There’s a lot going on. There’s filming headline acts, each with their own massive production, booking upcoming artists from stages we can't get to perform in our presentation positions, and working with our presenters to be the audience's eyes and ears from site to making the VT inserts that have been a key part of our coverage from the first. We’re also showing some of the cultural context and human stories that take viewers inside the Glastonbury experience and give some hint of the often weird and wonderful worlds that lie beyond the big stages.

Glastonbury the phenomenon has never lost its beauty or its fascination for us either. This year we're making items about which fields fill up first and where the 'hot' tent pitches are, the construction of the new Arcadia and meeting quite a few of the characters who work at the festival for starters. Many of the small teams filming these items will be staying up very late to film night time Glastonbury and getting up very early to edit them. Meanwhile many of the key production management and engineering staff are already living onsite, preparing for the weekend and the arrival of the larger BBC teams while living in tiny port cabins backstage.

Glastonbury for our production teams is already 24/7. If it rains or floods, some of our stories will change and we may even find ourselves at the centre of the story on BBC News ourselves. But it's not going to rain, not this year, or so I keep telling myself...

What will I be doing this year? Doing what I always, do, walking for what seems like miles between our various trucks, trying to get out to West Holts or the John Peel tent to visit the crews out there, probably having the odd last minute discussion with a French manager who insists he hasn't received a contract for his artist who are about to go onstage and who we want to film, talking through running orders for the programmes that just seem to keep coming all weekend, staying up late in the BBC Two broadcast truck, driving back to Street with my exhausted but mostly buzzing colleagues at 2.30 am and trying not to drop in to the bar for a quick one because the next day we've got to do it all over again, back onsite for a late breakfast. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Mark Cooper is Head of BBC Music TV

Read Director of Music Bob Shennan's blog Preparing for Glastonbury 2014
Visit the BBC at Glastonbury website for the full line-up of artists and answers to frequently asked questions about our coverage.
Follow @BBCGlasto on Twitter for updates about coverage throughout the weekend.
A full line-up Twitter list has been compiled by our colleagues in BBC Radio.

Preparing for Glastonbury 2014

2014-06-06T06:58:43+00:00

Director, BBC Music Bob Shennan, outlines the BBC’s plans to provide coverage of Glastonbury 2014.

It started as the Pilton Pop, Blues & Folk Festival, officially it’s now the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, to many it’s simply The Best Festival in the World.

As I write, 900 acres of farmland in the Vale of Avalon is being transformed into a magical playground, with over 1,200 acts set to perform across 100 stages. It’s an impossibly diverse mix of music, comedy, theatre, circus and art. On the iconic Pyramid Stage alone you’ll be able to see everything from Dolly Parton and Kasabian to Robert Plant and the English National Ballet.

Across the BBC, our key aim for 2014 is to bring you more of the music you love – offering those of you who can’t be there the next best thing: a chance to tailor-make your own Glastonbury experience.

Last year saw a step-change in our approach to covering the festival, with live and on-demand streaming from 6 different stages, involving over 120 artists across the three days. 19 million of you – around a third of all adults in the UK – watched some of the TV coverage; with record numbers accessing our online and interactive services. We hope to repeat that success this year, with a similar offering that makes it simple for you to enjoy the event whenever you want, wherever you are.

Metallica, who’ll be at the festival for the first time to headline on Saturday night, are renowned for their incredibly powerful, pyrotechnical performances, the likes of which Glastonbury has probably never seen before, and I hope we’ll be able to fully do that justice.

If metal isn’t your cup of tea however, there will be plenty of alternatives just a few clicks away on your tablets or interactive TVs – and I would encourage everyone to check out the full range of coverage BBC Music will be bringing you across our TV, radio and interactive options.

We’ll be broadcasting over 50 hours of radio across Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio 2 and 6 Music; with around 30 hours of TV coverage on BBC Two, Three and Four. I’m also delighted to say The One Show will be returning to Glastonbury, with a special hour long show on Friday 27^th June on BBC One giving viewers an insight into the festival’s history and heritage, as well as roaming the site to capture some of its more extraordinary happenings.

Broadcasting this amount of live programming from a field in Somerset is obviously demanding, so I’m grateful to the team of cameramen, vision mixers, directors, vision control engineers, producers and website techs - around 300 BBC staff and freelancers in total – who will be working on site across the weekend to deliver this coverage. We’re sending the same number of people as last year and, whilst some will inevitably still argue this is too many, I can assure you that every member of staff onsite has a clear and accountable role, working long hours to offer unparalleled coverage for our audiences. We have also worked hard over recent years to identify areas where resources can be shared or tasks more easily undertaken off-site.

To put that number in perspective, I was reading on Glastonbury’s website about the plans this year for Shangri-la - a unique area of the festival which really comes alive after dark. Ten months in the planning and taking a month to build, they’re promising an “immersive installation, a vast interactive fictional world brought to life by a creative team of over 1,500 crew performers and artists”.

It’s this kind of ambition that ensures Glastonbury continues to be way more than just a music festival. It is a wonderfully unique British experience, which I hope we can bring you a small flavour of, at the end of the month.

Bob Shennan is Director, BBC Music

Read Glastonbury 2014: The weird and wonderful worlds that lie beyond the big stages
Follow the Glastonbury action on twitter @bbcglasto
Watch live performances online and on redbutton from Friday 27 June

How we're using social media at Glastonbury 2013

2013-06-28T07:36:20+00:00

One early evening last summer I walked through Hyde Park on my commute back to Victoria. Occasionally I'd look up to make sure I didn't bump into anyone but my eyes were mostly focused on my Twitter timeline which for 2 glorious weeks had been mostly #teamGB this and #london2012 that. A few minutes later I was watching bikes whizz around the Velodrome on a screen in my hand and the voice of Hugh Porter was describing yet another gold medal. On a phone. In a park.

12 months on and that brief Olympics anecdote will hopefully be repeated but for Seasick Steve or Public Enemy or Chic or Elvis Costello as the BBC returns to a small farm in Somerset for what you probably have heard is the biggest, most digital and we hope the BBC's best Glastonbury coverage yet.

My role at the BBC has been to help plan more comprehensive and closer social media coverage than ever before from our journalists, presenters, radio networks, and TV channels.

Our aim is to help audiences, that aren't in Pilton for the weekend, get closer to artists, find coverage of their favourite music and make them aware of the breadth and depth of the weekend. Most viewers expect headliners and top of the bill acts like Arctic Monkeys, Mumford & Sons and Dizzee Rascal to be covered but viewers are delighted to be also told how to find Public Image Ltd, Rufus Wainright and Dinosaur Jnr and 100+ other artists online or on TV and radio.

A dedicated Twitter account @bbcglasto will be answering questions throughout the weekend fielding such audience queries, selecting the best tweets from artists and sharing links to the best reviews, live blogs and commentary from UK newspapers and media. 100s of Real time images from the main stages will be shared to key social media platforms; (Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter) and the best artist, fan and media commentary will be curated by editors on a daily live blog. For real social media geeks we will also be sharing live Twitter stats, facts and figures in partnership with UK start-up Second Sync.

As with other live music events selected performance tracks from 100+ artists are also syndicated to YouTube, media partners and bloggers. And on air listeners and viewers will be encouraged to request a #glastoshout. On set guitars, DJs and BBC Three's treehouse studio will gradually adapt over time to reflect the Twitter usernames of audiences that have joined in. Keep an eye on the presenters mugs.

It's going to be quite a weekend. Quite a long weekend. Monday, for example, is just as big a day for traffic as users at work, or back from the festival itself catch up on performances they've missed. Most of our coverage will stay online for up to 30 days.

Please say hi on Twitter. Oh and if I look up for the next four days then I'll be hoping Bobby Womack will finish Sunday night with a moving "Across 110th Street…". It's a "Hell of a tester" says Bobby in the chorus. Well exactly.

Jem Stone is Editor, Social Media and Syndication, BBC Radio.

Live coverage of Glastonbury is available on TV, radio and online.
Read about The Ruen Brothers journey to Glastonbury the BBC Introducing blog.
On the BBC Internet Blog, Sam Bailey from Radio & Music Interactive writes about how Glastobury coverage is being delivered to people's smartphones.
There's also a blog about the Connected Red Button service for the Festival plus full details on our digital coverage on the BBC Media Centre website.
Radio 2 and 6 Music Controller Bob Shennan also blogged about how we're staffing Glastonbury this year.

Glastonbury 2013 on the BBC

2013-05-30T12:32:17+00:00

Aerial shot of Glastonbury 2010

Controller of Popular Music at the BBC Bob Shennan, explains how the BBC will be provide coverage of this year's Glastonbury Festival.

Around this time two years ago, Beyonce rocked the Pyramid stage at the world’s greatest music and arts festival. Now the fields of Worthy Farm have recovered and the Stones, Arctic Monkeys and Mumford & Sons are packing their bags for Somerset. Yes, Glastonbury is back and I’m hugely excited by what we’ve got in store.

Our ambition is to make this the best Glastonbury ever for BBC audiences and the first truly digital one, with more access to the bands and easier ways to watch and listen than ever before. For the first time, music fans will be able to choose from over 250 hours of coverage and streaming, available wherever, whenever and however they want. Over 120 performances, from six of the main stages, will be streamed live across the three days and we’ll have a huge range of TV and radio coverage of the festival, all fronted by a crack team of the best music-loving presenters in the business.

I’m staggered by the huge numbers of people who tuned in last time. Almost a third of the population watched our TV coverage of the festival in 2011 and hashtags like #glastotelly trended on Twitter as people enjoyed the festival from the comfort (and dryness!) of their sofas. There was also huge demand for content online and an estimated audience of over 4 million to the radio coverage lead by 6 Music.

Logistically, covering the festival is a huge challenge. In population terms Glastonbury temporarily becomes the third largest ‘city’ in the south-west for a weekend. Miles and miles of cable are needed to link the various broadcasting teams on site, whilst walking from one side to the other can take hours, especially if it’s muddy.

As well as our team of presenters, we will have just under 300 staff and freelancers working tirelessly over the weekend to deliver 34 hours of television coverage and 59 hours of radio, in addition to the wealth of interactive coverage. Although we have about 10% more people going this year, we’re expecting to offer approximately 40% more output and cover around twice as many artists. Whilst some may argue that the staff numbers are high, creating programming on this ambitious scale means ensuring that we have the right resources to provide the high quality that is rightly expected of the BBC. This isn’t a licence fee funded jolly - we’ve looked very closely at who will be there and each and every person attending from the BBC will be there solely because they have a job to do in either bringing our audience the best possible content or ensuring that everything we do at the festival is run as effectively as possible.

In some areas there will be fewer staff working on site than previously as, more than ever, we are sharing expertise and resources wherever possible. For example, the sound you hear of a band on television is mixed by the same person responsible for the sound on the radio; the video highlights you can view online are filmed by the same cameraman working on our television coverage. Therefore, although the amount of the festival that we’re showing is so much greater than ever before, the number of people isn’t.

Our aim is for Glastonbury 2013 on the BBC to be better than ever. Let’s just keep fingers crossed on the one thing we can’t influence - the weather.

Bob Shennan is Controller, BBC Popular Music

Read more about BBC Glastonbury coverage on the Media Centre website.

Glastonbury - covering a major cultural event

2011-06-07T14:09:38+00:00

Every year we have to counter the charge that the numbers of backstage talent the BBC sends to create Glastonbury is excessive. If the figures were 600, 300 or 100 people I don't think it would make any difference. Last year we sent 274 staff and freelancers and this year it will be less.

Glastonbury is a major cultural event and the UK's most significant popular music festival. Last year our coverage reached nearly 16 million people, was listened to by 5.7 million individuals and the website featured around 170 hours of video. The BBC prides itself on its high-quality coverage of major events like Glastonbury, so I thought I'd give you a glimpse of what I see backstage to give you a better scale to understand why, later this month, the BBC will send 263 of its best people to Somerset to bring a huge amount of content to our audiences across all our platforms.

The Glastonbury site is 1100 acres - more than double the size of the Olympic Park and Alton Towers and the equivalent of 550 football pitches - it's huge! It took me an hour to walk across the site (with no people there) and when at capacity over the weekend with around 135,000 people on site it can take much longer!

We have cameras and crew at six stages across this massive site - bringing audiences 38 hours of TV on BBC Two, Three and Four and around 50 hours of radio across 6Music, Radio 2 and Radio 1 plus extensive coverage on bbc.co.uk, as well as on four Red Button streams, offering a complete multi-platform experience.

As a former sound engineer, I'm going to tell you about the main Pyramid Stage sound for the Radio, TV and on-demand. We're talking about delivering some of the world's greatest artists (this year there's U2, Coldplay and BeyoncÃ©) to your TV, radio and computer in super quality. I can tell you that mixing the hundreds of sound feeds does not happen on mobile disco equipment - Sound II is the BBC's big digital mobile music studio - a truck crammed with the highest possible quality mixing desk, monitoring and FX systems. Inside, our very best sound engineers work on a shift system to deliver great sound day and night; there are stage technicians who lay the cables and set the mics; and production assistants who log, time, quality check and upload hundreds of tracks so that the BBC Radio stations can play out live music in their Glastonbury specials.

This is only one stage and only the sound - across a sprawling site which is bigger than Bath. There's also the John Peel Stage, West Holts Stage, The Park Stage, Other Stage and BBC Introducing Stage with each one having dedicated technical points. And there are dozens more stages, tents and areas where music and comedy acts are doing their thing - so getting around the site with equipment and artists can be a real challenge.

All this, even before we get to the multi hi-def camera points, the vision mixers, directors, vision control engineers, producers, the website techs and the fact that tons of kit has to be installed in a fairly remote valley in Somerset and taken down days later by riggers and drivers. I hope you'll appreciate that this is why it takes the number of people it does to deliver the BBC's high quality multi-platform content. I should add that as the broadcast partner, the BBC's pictures are beamed across the world with BBC WorldWide selling rights to coverage overseas and generating funds to be invested back into the BBC for making programmes.

And this is certainly no 'junket'. There's no BBC corporate hospitality and any BBC executives attending will also be working. Every member of staff onsite has a clear and accountable role - working hard and extremely long hours to offer unparalleled coverage. The people who work at the festival are some of the most dedicated, talented hard-working and professional crew I have come across in my career - and I have been around a long time!

Andy Parfitt is Controller Radio 1, 1Xtra, Popular Music and Asian Network

More details of this year's festival on the BBC Press Office web site.
The BBC's Glastonbury web site has this year's lineup and an archive or content from previous festivals.
The official Glastonbury festival web site has further news and information - although tickets are sold out.
The picture shows Lisa Elle from Dark Horses on the BBC Introducing Stage at Glastonbury 2010. It's by Rory Connolly.

Scheduling Glastonbury, the World Cup and a summer of live events

2010-06-08T14:08:49+00:00

It's a particularly exciting summer on the BBC this year; we'll be covering all the major sporting events such as The Open and the 2010 World Cup from South Africa and music festivals including Glastonbury and T In The Park.

As many of these events are live, there will be some very difficult decisions to be made around scheduling. Over on the TV blog, Jana Bennett, Director of Vision for the BBC, reveals the breadth of BBC coverage in 2010 and explains how scheduling decisions are made.

You can read Jana's blog and comment on the TV blog.

Major Events

2010-01-29T14:27:01+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/beijing.jpg
There were, generally speaking, two schools of thought about the BBC's Beijing Olympic coverage.

The first is that it was one of the highlights of 2008 and some of the best sports coverage in recent memory. This was the clear finding of our audience research, and also of a lot of the emails, blog responses and letters we received - for which, many thanks.

The second view is that may have been the case but we were extravagant in the number of staff we sent and the amount of money we spent, and this fits into accusations of the BBC not being careful enough in the spending of the licence fee.

Well, now we have a judgement.

The BBC Trust invited the government's National Audit Office to review the coverage of six major events: Beijing, Euro 2008 and Wimbledon from BBC Sport - and The Proms, Glastonbury and Radio 1's Big Weekend from our colleagues in Audio and Music.

Please note: this is an extract. Read the rest of Roger Mosey's blog post and leave comments on his blog.