Glastonbury coverage attracts 18.6m to BBC

The BBC has announced that its Glastonbury television coverage achieved a record audience this year, increasing by over three million viewers on 2010's event.

Glastonbury coverage on BBC Two, BBC Three and BBC Four reached a total of 18.6 million viewers from June 24 to June 26, up from 15.4m last year, according to viewing data from BARB.

Presented by Lauren Laverne, Zane Lowe, Mark Radcliffe and Jo Whiley, BBC Two's Glastonbury programmes reached 15.7m viewers, up by 3.6m on last year.

The headline performers - U2, Coldplay and Beyoncé - enjoyed an average audience of around 1.5m, with the biggest peak coming for Beyoncé's Sunday night set at 2.6m.

Watch Beyoncé perform 'Run The World (Girls)' live at Glastonbury below:



BBC Three's coverage, hosted by Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates, reached a total of 6.7m viewers, up from 5.6m last year. Mumford and Sons enjoyed the biggest performance at an average audience of 777,000, followed by Elbow's 712,000.

On BBC Four, the Mark Radcliffe-hosted coverage had 4.3m viewers, up by 1.9m on last year. U2's performance brought in the channel's highest average audience, at 1.2m with a peak of 1.35m.

Jan Younghusband, the commissioning editor of BBC TV music and events, said: "It's terrific that the BBC has been able to bring Glastonbury to such a wide audience - with great access across TV, radio and online - taking viewers into the heart of the action of this amazing festival."

The BBC said that its Glastonbury coverage data for BBC Red Button, interactive and BBC Radio will be made available over the coming weeks.

Also today, BARB announced plans to monitor television viewing on PCs, laptops and tablet computers by rolling out a new web TV viewing meter in 100 BARB reporting homes.

> Glastonbury 2011: In pictures

Watch Coldplay close their Glastonbury set with 'Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall' below: