Huge growth in content requests from mobiles and tablets has seen the BBC iPlayer break records in 2012.
Data released by BBC iStats shows that
iPlayer audiences spent 34% more time watching TV than ever before, and that overall, on-demand and catch-up service recorded 2.32 billion TV and radio programme requests and 36.5 billion minutes of content across all platforms.
However the big story was the fact that for the first time in its history, iPlayer requests from PCs comprised less than half of all total iPlayer requests, specifically 47% for December 2012 alone, and with huge growth in iPlayer requests from mobiles and tablets, which collectively saw a +177% year-on-year increase. These now account for over quarter of total iPlayer requests. Over 2012 there were nearly 14 million downloads of the iPlayer mobile app, with 300,000 downloads on Christmas Day 2012 to connected devices such as the Nexus 7, iPad and Kindle Fire HD.
After the introduction of mobile downloads in September 2012, 10.8 million BBC TV programmes were transferred to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices. Downloaded programmes now make up 6% of TV viewing on mobiles and tablets.
“[In 2012] the use of iPlayer shifted from PCs and early adopter devices like game consoles to screens used by all audiences. Mobile, tablet, and connected TV skyrocketed, with a particular emphasis on audiences taking iPlayer on-the-go,” commented Daniel Danker, general manager, programmes and on-demand.