The BBC iPlayer, the publicly-funded video on demand service from the British Broadcasting Corporation, continues to grow in popularity. Usage stats for 2010 show which programs people have been watching, and which devices people are choosing to watch them on.
BBC iPlayer
The BBC iPlayer is now just over three years old, having been launched on Christmas Day 2007. In that relatively short time it has improved in terms of user experience and increased in popularity, as more people learn about online video on demand and how it can work for them.
2009 saw the iPlayer launch on several devices other than PC and Mac, and the number of requested streams increased until it topped 100 million in a month in December. But 2010 proved to be an even more important year, with more records having been broken.
2010 Usage Stats
has revealed its usage stats for 2010, and overall there were more than 1.3 billion streaming requests made during the year. November was the service’s best month to date, with 141 million requests having been made. Video grew by 38 percent over the previous year.
In terms of programming, the first episode of Doctor Who with Matt Smith playing the lead role took the ultimate honor, with 2.2 million people watching it through the service. Also popular was Top Gear (as always), and Sherlock.
PC Still King
Although the iPlayer is now available on a host of different devices (around 40 at the last count), the PC is still most definitely king. 73 percent of all iPlayer streaming happens on a PC, while 16 percent happens through Virgin Media’s cable service.
Next up is mobile devices, which includes the iPad and the iPhone, with four percent, while the same percentage happened on the Sony PS3 games console. The Wii accounted for two percent of the streaming total, while connected TVs accounted for the remaining one percent.
Conclusions
The BBC has done a fantastic job with the iPlayer, continually evolving it to move with the ever-changing needs of the online community. Which is why viewing figures have grown so consistently. And I’d bet on the trend continuing into 2011. Which could also be the year when the iPlayer rolls out internationally.
