iPlayer Receives More Than 75m Requests To View Since Launch

New figures from the BBC reveal that the iPlayer has now received more than 75 million requests to stream or download programmes.

The figures, which were unveiled by Ashley Highfield, BBC director of future media & technology, at the Google Zeitgeist 2008 forum, also show that the iPlayer enjoyed strong growth in April.

The total number of requests for downloads and streams of BBC programmes in April was 21 million, rising from 17.2 million in March and representing growth of over 20% month on month.

Average weekly users of the service reached 1.4 million in April, up from 1.1 million in March, and approximately double January’s average of 750,000 users.

The average daily number of requests to download or stream programmes rose to 700,000 in April.

This is an increase of more than a quarter on the 550,000+ daily requests to stream or download in March, while in January there was an average of 360,000+ requests received each day.

Doctor Who and The Apprentice dominate the top 20 most requested programmes to download or stream during April.

More recently, in the past two weeks of May, the average number of requests to view has risen to 716,000, while last Sunday (18 May) saw over 900,000 requests to view by more than 390,000 users.

A demographic breakdown of users of the iPlayer shows its broad appeal, with 16-34s at 37%, 35-54s at 43% and 55+ at 21%.

Share of usage across different platforms illustrates the nascent take up of BBC iPlayer, including Apple Mac (10%) and Apple iPhone and iPod Touch (3%).

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk