iPlayer passes 100 million views per month

The BBC has announced its catch-up TV service, BBC iPlayer breached the 100 million request mark for online content for the first time in December – this figure equates to an average of ten requests for every broadband user in the UK.

According to the broadcaster, the last two weeks of December saw a massive spike in usage as viewers watched TV online to catch up on missed shows. As well as the Christmas specials for Gavin and Stacey and Dr. Who, many used the service to listen to Terry Wogan’s final appearance on his Radio 2 breakfast show.

The latest report revealed one in eight of all TV requests now come through either a Nintendo Wii or a Sony PS3 console. .

Speaking on the high level of demand for BBC iPlayer, Erik Huggers, director of future media and technology at the BBC, commented: “Breaking the 100 million barrier is a great way to kick off 2010 and these figures show that by offering simple and varied access to BBC iPlayer people are really finding it easy to catch up with their favourite programmes at a time that suits them." He continued: "I expect more people to start using the service as we continue to make it more widely available and I'm looking forward to some of the new innovations we have coming to the service later on in the year."

Last week it was announced owners of Humax Freesat boxes will be able to access the BBC iPlayer service through their devices, provided they have their box plugged into a broadband connection with download speeds of at least 1Mb.