BBC iPlayer receives more than 75 million requests to view since launch

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
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BBC research released today reveals that BBC iPlayer has now received more than 75 million requests to stream or download programmes. The figures – unveiled by Ashley Highfield, BBC Director of Future Media & Technology, at the Google Zeitgeist 2008 forum – also show that BBC iPlayer enjoyed another month of strong growth during 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 BBC iPlayer 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 via BBC iPlayer 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 on BBC iPlayer during April. BBC Three programmes continue to prosper, with six in the top 20. These include the award-winning comedy Gavin And Stacey, which received approximately a quarter of a million requests in the week from 19 to 25 April on top of a weekly reach of three million, suggesting that certain programmes have the potential to significantly increase share through BBC iPlayer.

The April figures also reveal that programmes requested on BBC iPlayer which lie outside the top 20 programmes account for over a quarter of total consumption, suggesting a ‘long tail’ effect in action.

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 BBC iPlayer shows its broad appeal to all audiences, 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%).