BBC reports record-breaking 2014 for iPlayer

The BBC reported a record-breaking 3.5 billion TV and radio programme requests on the iPlayer in 2014, with mobile and tablet traffic driving much of the growth. 

Traffic to the online catch-up service broke down to 2.6 billion TV requests and more than 860 million radio requests across all devices, according to official BBC stats, with the 3.5 billion total up from 3.1 billion in 2013.

Traffic from tablets was up 51% year-on-year at 801 million requests, while mobile views climbed by 32% to 662 million requests. The BBC also reported a 13% year-on-year increase in requests from connected TVs at 626 million.

On mobile, drama Murdered By My Boyfriend on youth network BBC Three topped the chart for 2014, with 1.1m requests on mobile devices alone. The most popular shows on tablets were Sherlock, Top Gear and comedy Outnumbered. BBC thriller The Missing topped the list of most-watched programmes on connected TVs with 1.22 million requests, followed closely by Happy Valley with 1.16 million requests.

Overall for the year, the most watched show on the iPlayer was the first episode of the latest series of Sherlock with 4.19 million requests in total. The rest of the top five was made up of three episodes of Top Gear and another episode of Sherlock.

Elsewhere, the BBC reported strong numbers for its iPlayer originals content, with its Original Comedy Shorts attracting 1.9 million requests and Original Drama shorts 1.2m requests.

Ralph Rivera, director of BBC Future Media said: “2014 was a great year for iPlayer – with a record-breaking 3.5 billion programme requests, a brand-new version of iPlayer launched and the extension of the catch-up window from seven to 30 days. We’re looking forward to bringing fans even more in 2015.”