BBC iPlayer records strongest Q2 ever

Drama series including Peaky Blinders, The Split, Killing Eve and Sherwood, and live events including Glastonbury, the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, and the Eurovision Song Contest helped deliver record numbers of viewers to BBC iPlayer in the second quarter of the year, according to the pubcaster.

Programmes were streamed over 1.6 billion times between April and June, making it iPlayer’s best second quarter, the broadcaster said.

The first half of 2022 was also iPlayer’s best first six months of the year, with programmes streamed 140 million times more than the same period last year

The Glastonbury music festival saw 36 million streams up to the end of June, and 39.4 million to date, reaching a total of 20.6 million people across both the TV broadcast of the event and iPlayer

The Queen’s Jubilee Platinum Party at the Palace was streamed 3.1 million times on iPlayer, while the football FA Cup Final delivered 2.7 million streams, with a peak TV audience of eight million. The Eurovision Song Contest generated 2.4 million streams, with a peak TV audience of 10.6 million.

Among drama series, the final episode of Peaky Blinders was streamed four million times, while the first episode of Sherwood was streamed 2.8 million times.

The Wimbledon tennis tournament generated 18 million streams during June, 53.8 million streams across the whole tournament, and a total reach of 25.5 million people watching on BBC TV.

Soap opera EastEnders continues to dominate as the best performing continuing series – with 83 million streams between April and June.

“I’m delighted with the performance of BBC iPlayer during the second quarter of 2022, with the BBC’s unique and distinctive programme range creating compelling choices for all. It’s fantastic to see our comprehensive Glastonbury coverage coming out on top for viewers with almost 40 million streams and there were other events that also brought the nation together, the unforgettable Platinum Party at the Palace, Liverpool’s nail-biting victory on penalties in the FA Cup Final and Sam Ryder achieving the United Kingdom’s best performance in two decades at Eurovision,” said  Dan McGolpin, director of BBC iPlayer and channels.

“Millions of people watched the final series of beloved drama series Peaky Blinders, Killing Eve and The Split on BBC iPlayer and millions watched brand news series Sherwood, Conversations with Friends and the comedy series Here We Go. And quarter three is off to a great start with record audiences for the Women’s Euros and Wimbledon, we’re well on track for iPlayer’s best year ever.”