BBC i-Player inundated with requests for repeats

The BBC's online video streaming and catchup service i-Player was swamped with a record number of requests over the Christmas period, with over 145 million requests for television and radio programmes to be repeated and made available online, a nearly 30% rise over the same period last year.

The radio coverage of the cricket action from the Ashes was heavily featured in the requests, as well as new comedy series ‘Come Fly With Me’ by Matt Lucas and David Walliams.

Since its re-imagining several years ago, the yearly ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas special has become exceedingly popular and was featured in the requests along with more traditional programming such as ‘Top Gear’ and ‘Eastenders’.

The number of requests have been bolstered by the release last year of i-Player for both Playstation 3 consoles and the Virgin Media digital TV service.

Approximately 3.9 million requests were received every day by the i-Player service, which debuted in 2007. Services have also been implemented in Freesat, the digital service that extends across the UK, as well as on the Wii video-game console.

Content is available on i-Player for up to seven days after its first showing on television, with several exceptions. Customers can petition to have their favourite programmes repeated, or for classic shows that are not available elsewhere to be aired.

Many mobile devices have also taken advantage of various dedicated applications and programmes that can stream the service through the customer's mobile internet allowance, with six million requests being made in both November and December from mobile devices.