Global iPlayer passes one million downloads, BBC extends trial

BBC Worldwide’s Global iPlayer on-demand service has passed the one million downloads milestone a year after its launch, the BBC’s commercial arm has revealed.

The Global iPlayer is currently available in a pilot version in 16 countries in western Europe, Canada and Australia. BBC Worldwide has now extended the trial until the autumn, with the support of the BBC Trust.

BBC Worldwide said that digital businesses now accounted for 12.8% of its overall revenue, an increase of 58% from the 8.1% accounted for by digital last year.

BBC Worldwide’s sales to video-on-demand services almost tripled over the year.

The organisation said it had further developed its presence on Facebook, where its key brands now had over 25 million fans, with Top Gear and its various spin-off pages being the most popular. The Top Gear, Top Gear USA and The Stig Facebook pages together now have a total of 17.6 million fans.

The BBC News app gained a further 10.3 million downloads in June on iOS and Android devices, while the company’s gaming division, which launched 11 games over the last year with a further 12 in develop, secured 3.5 million downloads, boosted in particular by Top Gear’s Stunt School Revolution, which recorded two million downloads in its first month.

BBC.com, the international version of its bbc.co.uk site, attracted 58.5 million unique users over the year, up from 55.1 million the previous year.