Brilliant Beeb

Michael Sluming

As a number of my colleagues jet off to Spain this week for Benicassim, the music festival season is now well underway and the BBC reported last week that this year's Glastonbury was watched by record numbers online and via the red button.

For a supposedly rock and roll affair, the two most viewed performances were two of the most unashamedly poptastic, with Lady Gaga and Lily Allen attracting 1.3m and 762k views respectively, including one each from yours truly.

The license fee has come in for some criticism recently, with the revelations about BBC executives' salaries only exacerbating the situation, but these figures show how wide-reaching the BBC is (or at least, can be.)

Overpaid execs aside, the BBC has done a sterling job in pioneering quality online content and offers a service unrivalled by any of its commercial competitors. You could argue that this is because they have a reliable flow of money to throw at it, but surely that is only further justification for the license fee?

Whether you'd rather watch Antiques Roadshow over Glastonbury, choose to wake up with Wogan or are strictly Radio 4, the BBC offers something for everyone and has paved the way for other channels to follow, and that is something for which we should all be grateful.

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