BBC reports record February for iPlayer

The BBC said its iPlayer digital service had its “best ever February performance” thanks to a strong line-up of dramas and live sport.

Requiem

The first episodes of new dramas Requiem and Collateral were the most popular programmes of the month, with 1.9 and 1.7 million requests respectively, while McMafia continued its strong performance from January.

The Winter Olympics, FA Cup football and Six Nations rugby saw live viewing account for 21% of all programme requests during the month, the highest proportion since June 2017.

Across February a total of more than 285 million programmes were watched by viewers, a 4% year-on-year increase, with average daily requests of 10.2 million.

“February was a record breaking month for BBC iPlayer with new drama titles such as Requiem and Collateral leading the way,” said Dan McGolpin, controller of programming and daytime for the BBC.

“It’s also great to see an increasing number of viewers finding top quality live sport on iPlayer from the Winter Olympics to the Six Nations to the FA Cup.”