As 2015 draws to a close we've put together ten big moments for the BBC. Our list features critically acclaimed dramas, record ticket sales and record audiences. Here’s our selection:
1. Big moments for BBC Music
50,000 tickets werre sold in 40 minutes for Radio 1's Big Weekend in Norwich featuring Taylor Swift. BBC 6 Music hosted its annual festival on Tyneside.
BBC Music Day featured live music events and performances involving well-known musicians and local communities across the UK plus the BBC’s Performing Groups, and was broadcast across BBC TV, Radio and Local Radio.
The second BBC Music Awards were staged in Birmingham.
Adele at the BBC saw a YouTube clip of Adele impersonators reach a You Tube record of now over 41.5 million views.
And, BBC Proms 2015 sold a record 118,000+ tickets in the first 12 hours of tickets going on sale, a 9% increase on last year, when over 108,000 tickets were purchased during the equivalent period.
2. Drama
BBC Two's critically acclaimed Wolf Hall is the channel's highest-rating drama series since 2002. The adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize-winning novels became BBC Two's highest rating drama series in at least 13 years (since records began) - receiving a consolidated average audience of 4.4 million viewers and 15.8 per cent share across the six episodes.
Doctor Foster finale drew a consolidated audience of 10.1m viewers, proving a big hit with young audiences. The finale was the highest-rating BBC drama episode this year after Call The Midwife. The BBC One drama produced by Drama Republic attracted an average consolidated weekly audience of 8.2m, the highest rating for any new TV drama this year.
The first series of Poldark peaked with 9.4 million viewers earlier this year, generating phenomenal media interest and making household names of the cast including Aidan Turner, who returns as hero Ross Poldark, and Eleanor Tomlinson, who plays his wife Demelza.
3. Natural History on TV
This year, Natural History on the BBC has been exciting. Big Blue Live included the very first live broadcast of a blue whale, while landmark series The Hunt on BBC One attracted over five million viewers each week.
Japan, Pets: Wild At Heart, Shark and Alaska: Earth’s Frozen Kingdom have brought new audiences to our Natural History programming.
Great Barrier Reef aired in August of this year in which Monty Halls explored Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
4. General Election 2015 Coverage
BBC One topped TV election coverage with 4.3 million viewers in the overnight programme anchored by David Dimbleby.
8 May was the most popular day for BBC News in the UK – with 21.7m UK unique browsers (31.2m global unique browsers), as people chose to follow the BBC’s results coverage across multiple devices. Between 6am and 7am on the morning of the election results, 85 per cent of unique browsers were from mobiles and tablets.
5. BBC Sport
Andy Murray’s Davis Cup win was watched by a peak audience of 5 million
BBC Coverage of Wimbledon 2015 was bigger than ever before, with up to 15 live streams available to view.
Also this year, we provided FA Cup Final coverage, coverage of the World Athletics Championships, and gave equal billing for the Women’s Boat Race.
6. Big Audiences
Over 10 million tuned in for BBC One’s Doctor Foster finale, 13.4 million for this year’s Great British Bake Off final, and a peak audience of 11.9 million for the Strictly Come Dancing Final 2015.
7. Eastenders Live Week
EastEnders broke audience records as it celebrated its 30th anniversary on BBC One. The programmes were watched by over 20 million people (35% of UK population) across the week. Over 1 million tweets were sent as the audience saw the surprise return of Kathy Beale.
8. Children in Need
Chris Evans BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show led the fundraising and raised an incredible £5,715,167.57 in aid of this year’s Children in Need Day, with a series of live auctions, text-in competitions and fundraising events.
By the end of the live TV broadcast, people from across the UK had come together and raised a record-breaking £37,100,687.
9. The BBC around the world
The BBC World Service passed 1 billion podcast downloads this year. Figures from May 2015 showed downloads of nearly 28 million a month.
The first five episodes of Top Gear China's second seriesculminated in a combined audience of 217 million across TV and online.
The BBC’s combined weekly global audience (news and entertainment) reached 308 million for the year 2014/15.
In 2015, BBC Worldwide announced record returns to the BBC of £226.5m.
10. Make it Digital campaign
In 2015, 5,000 BBC Make it Digital Traineeships were made available, with applications made via local Job Centres.
Also this year, we unveiled the BBC micro:bit, a major part of our Make it Digital campaign. 1 million coding devices are to be given to every child in year 7.
Brogan Campbell is Assistant Press Officer, BBC Communications
