The BBC’s iPlayer made a record-breaking start to 2018, with 328 million requests across the month.
The service saw a 10 per cent increase in viewer requests compared to January 2017, with a record average of 10.6 million daily requests, while requests from TV devices reached a record-high proportion of 54 per cent.
Drama series McMafia (pictured) proved particularly popular with the show’s first episode being streamed 3.4 million times, over a million more requests than the second most popular show, episode one of Silent Witness.
Dan McGolpin, controller of programming and daytime for the BBC, said: “2018 has got off to a flying start, thanks in no small part to a range of gripping BBC dramas. McMafia, Hard Sun and Silent Witness dominate our most popular programmes on iPlayer for January, as does the always strong-performing EastEnders. It was also impressive to see the wildlife series Big Cats make this month’s top 5 performing series with an average of over one million requests per episode. It’s been a great start to the year, and we’re aiming to build on that success in the coming months.”