Sherlock tops BBC iPlayer requests

BBC iPlayer has seen a strong start to the year, with total requests averaging around 190 million per month between January and April 2012.

More than 140 million requests for TV and 46 million for radio programmes were recorded during the period, up 24% on the same period last year.

Mobile and tablet devices also delivered a significant increase in requests – up 94% on April 2011 – with 15% of total programme requests coming from mobiles and tablets in April 2012.

Apple announced the BBC iPlayer app for iPads is the top free app of all time in the UK.

Demand from internet connected devices such as Smart TVs, games consoles and blu-ray players continued to grow, with 11% of all requests in April 2012 – up 57% on April 2011.

The Voice and The Apprentice delivered the highest request numbers for TV programmes across recent months. Other popular programmes include BBC Three’s Russell Howard’s Good News, Britain Unzipped and BBC Four’s The Bridge.

However, BBC One’s popular Sherlock recorded the highest number of requests over the period.

BBC Radio 1 continued to perform well as did BBC Radio 4’s The Now Show. Demand for football coverage from the Premier League and FA Cup also remained popular on BBC Radio 5 live.

The BBC will publish BBC iPlayer figures on a monthly basis from next month.

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