2012 – Another record year for BBC iPlayer

BBC’s iPlayer benefited from a sprinkle of Christmas magic as December saw requests jump up by 5% to a record 217 million, according to data released today.

The increase in viewing was driven by numerous Christmas specials airing throughout the festive period.

As expected the Doctor Who special The Snowmen, which saw the proper introduction of new companion Clara, led the race with 1.4 million requests. The routine Christmas day fracas on EastEnders followed, with 29,000 less requests than the good Doctor.

The iPlayer Monthly Performance Pack also highlighted a trend of users moving away from the PCs and TVs. For the first time ever PC comprised less than half of all requests for iPlayer, at 47%.

While mobile and tablet only made up 29% of requests both hand held devices witnessed increases of 13% compared to November 2012, no doubt helped by the high uptake of tablet ownership during the period. Over the year though, mobiles and tablets requests jumped by an significant 195% compared to December 2011.

Reflecting the overall record number of requests for TV content in December, the top six titles enjoyed over 1 million requests. Miranda, Outnumbered, Call the Midwife and Mrs Brown’s Boys all performing highly with their festive editions.

Overall requests jumped by 16% year on year, with TV-only requests enjoying a 22% increase. Throughout 2012 the iPlayer service received 2.32 billion TV and radio programme requests with 36.5 billion minutes of programming streamed across all platforms.

Audiences spent 34% more time watching content than ever before. Danny Boyle’s spectacular Olympic Opening Ceremony topped iPlayer viewing in 2012 with 3.3 million requests, followed by the opening episode of Top Gear with 2.8 million and the first slice of Sherlock’s second series with 2.5 million.