Sunday 10th May was BBC iPlayer’s biggest ever day, with the BVoD platform receiving 22.5 million requests.
Meanwhile, April was iPlayer’s biggest ever month, with 564 million requests.
Since lockdown was announced on 23 March, the BBC said iPlayer has seen 927 million requests – 61 per cent higher than the same seven-week period last year. In the first quarter of the year, iPlayer had 1.4 billion requests, up 34 per cent compared to the same period in 2019.
According to the BBC, the initial spike was from viewers looking for news, particularly the Prime Minister’s address announcing the UK was going into lockdown, which received 900,000 requests.
The platform has also saw a big increase in requests for children’s shows, while, as viewers have grown more used to staying at home, drama and comedy series have become more popular.
Controller of BBC iPlayer Dan McGolpin said: “This has been a unique period in our history and I’m pleased that BBC iPlayer has been able to make such a positive contribution to what so many people are watching.”
