BBC iPlayer receives record number of hits in December

The BBC’s iPlayer service received a record number of catch-up requests in December due to the popularity of shows such as Top Gear.

The online VoD service received more than 100 million programme requests during the month for the first time ever, with a total of more than 115 million requests, according to reports.

Top Gear‘s South American special was the most popular show on the iPlayer in December with over 1 million play-back requests from viewers, while Terry Wogan’s final BBC Radio 2 breakfast show and anticipation over the Christmas number one also boosted demand for radio shows.

In the week starting December 14, more than 7.7 million people wanted to listen to programmes via the radio player, which is its biggest number of requests yet.

Wogan’s farewell was the most-listened to show of the month, pulling in around 250,000 requests from listeners on and after December 18.

However, Radio 1’s Christmas chart show didn’t come far behind with more than 240,000 requests.

Meanwhile, TV specials including David Tennant’s last-ever Doctor Who helped the iPlayer attract over 17.3 million programme requests during the week beginning December 28 – which is the iPlayer’s highest number of requests since it was launched in December 2007.

Last month also saw an increase in viewing on games consoles, according to the BBC.  One in eight of all requests to play-back TV shows are now coming from a Nintendo Wii or a Sony PS3 – a 74% month on month rise in December.

The new figures come just a day after the BBC unveiled plans to launch the iPlayer service on Freesat HD digital boxes and HD TVs.  The corporation is set to roll out the service over the next few months following a trial offering the VoD service on subscription-free TV services.

Newsline is now on Twitter.  To keep up-to-date with all the latest media news stories plus find out about MediaTel events, follow us now – twitter.com/MediaTelGroup