BBC iPlayer saw a record 320 million TV and radio requests in March, up 18 per cent year on year and breaking the previous high of 315 million requests set in January this year.

For the first time ever, TV requests from tablets and PCs were on par, both constituting 29 per cent of all TV requests. Mobiles and tablets contributed almost half of all requests to TV programmes on BBC iPlayer, accounting for 115 million requests.

The Top Gear Burma Special proved very popular, with a total of 6.1m requests for part one and part two. Other popular shows included The Voice UK and Outnumbered. The Life And Death Row series proved a big hit for BBC Three on BBC iPlayer last month with 1.2 million requests for episode one. Sport Relief also did well, with episode one generating over 1 million requests.

Top radio programmes were dominated by sports coverage. However, the new series of The News Quiz was also popular, alongside the Radio 1 and Radio 2 Breakfast Shows.

Consistent with previous months:

• The profile of BBC iPlayer users has evened out over time in terms of male/female ratio, but remains strongly under-55 in terms of age, which is younger than the typical TV viewer or radio listener’s profile (although more in line with home broadband users)
• BBC iPlayer is used for TV at roughly the same time of day as linear TV viewing, although there is proportionally more daytime and late-peak use. For radio, BBC iPlayer is used far more in daytime than traditional radio listening, which peaks at breakfast-time

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