BBC ‘can have 1,000 workers engaged on Glastonbury protection this week’ regardless of low scores

The BBC can have as many as 1,000 folks engaged on its Glastonbury protection this week, sources declare, regardless of the competition failing to draw excessive TV scores.

Insiders say the overall price of airing the competition this 12 months will ‘run into a number of hundreds of thousands’ – prompting questions on whether or not it represents worth for cash for licence price payers.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal 4 accommodations, all believed to be four- or five-star, have been booked up for a number of the workers to remain in for the five-day music occasion, which begins on Friday.

Sources on the BBC say it’s justifying the staffing numbers as a result of its protection will probably be ‘greater than ever earlier than’ because the broadcaster screens performances from massive title acts, together with Arctic Monkeys, Weapons N’ Roses, Elton John, Lizzo and Blondie.

Presenting workforce Lauren Laverne, Jack Saunders, Jo Whiley and Clara Amfo will probably be among the many BBC’s hordes of workers on the competition

Final evening, an insider on the Company admitted bosses had been conscious it was a ‘big quantity of workers’, a lot of whom are staying within the Charlton Home Resort, the place rooms price as much as £400 per evening. In earlier years, the broadcaster has refused to reveal what number of workers it sends.

However, in 2009, it revealed it had despatched 415 workers to cowl that 12 months’s Glastonbury – simply 22 fewer than the quantity flown out for the 2008 Beijing Olympics – at an estimated price of £1.5 million. Final 12 months, a high-profile efficiency by Paul McCartney, with a close to three-hour set when he headlined on the Saturday evening, pulled in a median of two.7 million viewers on BBC1. However the Sunday evening’s high star, Kendrick Lamar, attracted simply 570,000.

The 1,000 determine contains freelancers, folks working within the BBC’s studios and workers who will probably be current as a result of they’ve been given hospitality tickets.

One supply stated: ‘Out of the 1,000 down on the positioning, a lot of them will probably be working very exhausting to supply glorious protection. However you will be shocked at what number of BBC workers are at Glastonbury simply to have time.’

Paul McCartney headlined at Glastonbury final 12 months because the BBC says its protection this 12 months will probably be ‘greater than ever earlier than’

Final month, Lorna Clarke, the BBC’s director of music, admitted this 12 months would see ‘the BBC current extra Glastonbury protection than ever earlier than’. It follows an extension of the unique deal between the Company and Glastonbury chief Michael Eavis.

BBC sources declare the variety of 1,000 is overstated, however a Company spokeswoman refused to present transparency round how many individuals are deployed, saying: ‘We do not recognise this determine,’ mentioning the breadth of protection throughout ‘over 40 hours on TV and BBC iPlayer, 85 hours of dwell radio and in depth content material on BBC Sounds’.