MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, has commissioned a bespoke Glastonbury programme that will stream directly from the festival to air live on its international channel portfolio.

Glastonbury 2013 will be a six-hour television event taking global audiences to the heart of the action of this iconic open air British music and performing arts festival.

On 30 June - the final day of the festival - the six-hour broadcast will run without break and feature highlights from Friday, Saturday and Sunday performances.

The highlights and live coverage will be linked by BBC presenters on site and a 90s? highlights package will also be made available for the channels following the festival as part of the deal brokered by acquisitions and content manager, content Richard Acton and director music content Salim Mukaddam.

Commissioned specifically for the international channels audience by BBC Worldwide VP commissioning, content Tracy Forsyth the bespoke programme Glastonbury 2013 is the ninth original production to be announced within the global commissioning strategy for BBC branded channels.

Forsyth said, "We are delighted to be bringing yet another world-class British event to our audiences across the globe. The scale and quality of Glastonbury and its consistently stellar line-up of music acts have given it a well-earned reputation as one of the world?s not-to-be-missed events, so we are excited to be bringing our viewers closer than ever before."

Glastonbury 2013 will be available on BBC Entertainment (Asia, Latin America, Poland, Nordics and South Africa), BBC Knowledge (Asia), BBC HD (EMEA and Latin America) and UKTV (Australia and New Zealand). The line-up for the six-hour broadcast is yet to be announced.

Glastonbury regularly sees over 150,000 festival goers coming together in a huge tented city. The festival has played host to some of the biggest names in music including Beyonce, Coldplay and U2 and musical greats Tom Jones, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney and David Bowie.

MUMBAI: ?Really Cool Stuff? (working title) is the eighth original production to be announced by BBC Worldwide as part of the new commissioning strategy for its global branded channels, unveiled last September.

Blending science and factual entertainment, the fully funded format will premiere on BBC Knowledge (Asia, Africa, CEE, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Poland and the Nordics) and BBC HD (Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America) next year. Dissecting the coolest things in the universe, the general knowledge show will be led by three British presenters alongside studio experiments and CGI and animations.
 
The 10 episode factual entertainment series from 360Production will tackle some of the world?s greatest mysteries from why cats have nine lives, to why we experience D?j? Vu and whether anyone could move fast enough to dodge a speeding bullet.

BBC Worldwide?s aim is to deliver 100 hours of original programming to its BBC branded channels by next year.

The company adds that this latest original production which blends science with factual entertainment, demonstrates VP of commissioning Tracy Forsyth?s commitment to work with independent producers and the BBC?s in-house production teams to create original and high quality television formats for the BBC?s international channel portfolio. Lucy Pilkington will act as BBC Knowledge executive producer, while BBC Worldwide will hold all commercial rights to the new series of ?Really Cool Stuff?, including global broadcast and distribution.

Created with an international BBC audience in mind, ?Really Cool Stuff? will take a magnifying glass to the world?s greatest and most intriguing natural wonders and examine quirky topics in bite size chunks. There will be a mix of presenter interaction, CGI, studio-based scientific experiments, demonstrations and expert input. Hosts Greg Foot (Physicist and adrenalin junkie), Fran Scott (biologist and practical experimenter) and Dominic Byrne (radio and TV broadcaster) will together debate, investigate and dissect a wide spectrum of topics including: "What is more deadly, a tornado or a hurricane?", "where do accents come from?" and "what is the loudest living thing in the ocean?"
 
Forsyth commented, "This high-energy, visually stimulating and incredibly informative series by 360Production, truly delivers a great mix of science and factual entertainment content in a fresh, digestible and returnable format. ?Really Cool Stuff? will answer some of those bizarre common-place questions you have always wondered about, no matter where you live in the world ? and this is one of the many reasons I believe the show will have wide-appeal with our international BBC audiences".

360Production creative director John Farren said, "Everyone at 360Production loves perplexing questions, funny answers, brilliant design and making things go bang. In this show, we get to do them all and can?t wait to share the results with audiences around the world."