Press Releases

• BBC iPlayer breaks 100 million requests, with record numbers at the end of 2009
• New Year's Day was most popular day for people "iPlayer-ing" over Christmas
• Terry Wogan's departure and battle for Christmas No. 1 helps BBC iPlayer to achieve record numbers of Radio requests
• 1.3 million requests for David Tennant's final appearance as Doctor Who
• One-in-eight requests for TV programmes now coming from a games console

New figures released today show that BBC iPlayer reached a new landmark, as the on-demand service broke 100 million requests for programmes in a month for the first time.

The service, which is now available on more than 20 devices, allows people to catch up with their favourite BBC programmes using their TV, mobile phone or computer. The final two weeks of December 2009 saw a huge increase for people accessing BBC programmes through their games console. One in eight of all TV requests are now coming from either a Nintendo Wii or Sony PS3 console, which is an increase of 74% since November 2009.

The final Wake Up To Wogan and the race for 2009's Christmas number one saw the week commencing 14 December become the record week for radio requests in BBC iPlayer history, while the week of 28 December saw 17.3 million requests come in for TV alone, setting a new record for TV programme requests in a week.

The figures also reveal the Top 20 programmes on the service over Christmas, with Top Gear's Bolivia Special being the most popular TV programme, and day two of the England v South Africa Test Match being the most popular radio programme.

EastEnders, Gavin & Stacey and Doctor Who all performed strongly, while two of the family blockbuster films shown on the BBC also featured in the Top 20, proving that people are really happy to watch both short and feature length programmes on-demand.

Erik Huggers, Director of Future Media and Technology, said: "Breaking the 100 million barrier is a great way to kick off 2010 and these figures show that by offering simple and varied access to BBC iPlayer people are really finding it easy to catch up with their favourite programmes at a time that suits them.

"I expect more people to start using the service as we continue to make it more widely available and I'm looking forward to some of the new innovations we have coming to the service later on in the year."

Notes to Editors

Since its launch on Christmas Day 2007, BBC iPlayer has grown to a service receiving over 100 million requests per month for BBC TV and Radio programmes.

The on-demand service from the BBC allows UK audiences to catch up with their favourite BBC content, broadcast over the last seven days, at a time that is suitable for them.

Audiences have a choice of streaming or downloading their chosen programme and, with series catch-up, selected programmes are made available for the entire season.

First launched on the computer, BBC iPlayer is now available on more than 20 devices, including TV services, games consoles and mobile phones, providing UK audiences with greater access to the wealth of content available from the BBC.

Programme availability differs across the different platforms.

Source: BBC iStats – Requests are combined for both simulcast and on-demand requests per title. Numbers rounded to the nearest 100 due to sampling methodology. Note, this data is collected via a BBC internal data warehouse (BBC iStats). The methodology adheres to industry standard guidelines as defined by JICWEBs and ABCe, with the exception that the BBC data is based on a 25% sample of users and not 100%. The BBC is working towards 100% sample over the coming months.

Total numbers for November and December 2009 include figures for BBC iPlayer on Virgin Media.

BBC iPlayer titles – TV programmes – 21 December 2009 to 3 January 2010

BBC iPlayer titles – radio programmes – 21 December 2009 to 3 January 2010

Total monthly BBC iPlayer requests across all platforms

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