BBC iPlayer and BBC iPlayer Radio went through another record in 2014 with the combined number of programme requests reaching over 3.5 billion, compared with 3.1 billion in the previous year.
There were over 2.6 billion TV requests and over 860 million radio requests across all devices.
On TV popular shows such as Sherlock were reflected in high numbers of requests. Sherlock was the most popular programme, with 4.2m requests, followed by Top Gear (Series 21) with 3.8m requests and BBC Three’s critically acclaimed film Murdered By My Boyfriend with 3 million requests.
On radio cricket dominated with Test Match Special of England versus India on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra topping the table with 312,500 requests, followed by coverage of Manchester United versus Manchester City with 295,300 requests and Carl Froch take on George Groves in the ring with 219,800 requests.
All three were only available to view live on pay-TV.
Ralph Rivera, Director of BBC Future Media said: “BBC iPlayer is one of the BBC’s greatest inventions, pioneering on-demand viewing and listening for all audiences in the UK. 2014 was a great year for iPlayer – with a record-breaking 3.5bn programme requests, a brand-new version of iPlayer launched and the extension of the catch-up window from seven to 30 days. We’re looking forward to bringing fans even more in 2015.”
Mobile and tablet continued to dominate iPlayer growth, with a 51 per cent increase in requests from tablets (801m requests in 2014) and 32 per cent increase in requests year on year from mobiles (662m requests in 2014).
BBC iPlayer also saw increasing demand to watch iPlayer TV programmes on the biggest screen in the house, with a 13% year-on-year increase in requests from Connected TVs (626m requests in 2014).
