After more than 40 years of operation, DTVE is closing its doors and our website will no longer be updated daily. Thank you for all of your support.
BBC iPlayer sees record breaking holiday fortnight
UK public broadcaster the BBC’s BBC iPlayer video-on-demand service broke viewing records over the holiday period, seeing 245 million streams over between December 21 and January 3, up by 16% on the same two weeks last year.
New Year’s Day was the biggest day for iPlayer, with 21.2 million streams, the most popular New Year ever on the service, up 18% year-on-year, driven by real-life crime-drama The Serpent.
There were also 7.93 million unique browsers on New Year’s Day – breaking the record for unique browsers visiting iPlayer in a single day. This beats the 7.8 million record set on October 31, when further lockdown restrictions in England were announced.
A Christmas Day episode of popular soap opera EastEnders was the most popular series episode over the holidays, with over 1.5 million streams across the two-week period. The series itself was the most popular programme over the whole period, with more than 13.8 million streams.
A new range of dramas including Black Narcissus and The Serpent also proved popular, along with long-running series Call the Midwife’s Christmas Special and the movie Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Charlotte Moore, chief content officer said: “The unparalleled range of programmes on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds delivered a record breaking Christmas this year. More people chose a personalised version of the BBC and sought out content on a scale we’ve not seen before from the breadth of entertainment and escapism available.”