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Wed, 21 May 2008 One-in-ten iPlayer users are on Mac

BBC reveals strong April usage figures for iPlayer

Jonny Evans

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BBC research has confirmed the broadcaster has now served up over 75 million TV shows, via streaming or the non-Mac compatible download.

The figures were revealed by BBC director of Future Media & Technology Ashley Highfield at the Google Zeitgeist 2008 forum.
Highfield confirmed the total number of requests for downloads and streams of BBC programmes in April was 21 million, rising from 17.2 million in March and representing growth of over 20 per cent month on month.
 
Average weekly users of BBC iPlayer reached 1.4 million in April, up from 1.1 million in March, and approximately double January's average of 750,000 users.
 
The average daily number of requests to download or stream programmes using iPlayer rose to 700,000 in April, an increase of more than a quarter on the 550,000+ daily requests to stream or download in March, while in January there was an average of 360,000+ requests received each day.
 
Doctor Who and The Apprentice dominated the top 20 most requested programmes during April, while BAFTA-award-winning comedy show Gavin And Stacey received approximately a quarter of a million requests in the week from 19 to 25 April on top of a weekly reach of three million, “suggesting that certain programmes have the potential to significantly increase share through iPlayer,” the BBC said.
 
The April figures also reveal that programmes requested on BBC iPlayer which lie outside the top 20 programmes account for over a quarter of total consumption.
 
A demographic breakdown of users of BBC iPlayer shows its broad appeal to all audiences, with 16–34s at 37 per cent, 35–54s at 43 per cent and 55+ at 21 per cent.
 
And in a final flourish, the BBC confirmed Apple’s growing market share among consumers, with 10 per cent of streams going to Macs and an additional 3 per cent going to iPhones or the iPod touch.

This indicates 140,000 Mac users now use iPlayer, and also suggests an astonishing 42,000 users accessed iPlayer in April using an iPhone or an iPod touch.

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