I've analysed the latest iPlayer numbers and compared them with the audience ratings achieved by the shows when they were first transmitted on a BBC channel. The table below prompts the question -What would it mean if more people were to watch a programme on the BBC iPlayer programme than they did when the programme was first broadcast on a BBC channel? The question is almost answered by figures released by the BBC for iPlayer viewing in October, when the first episode of Russell Howard’s Good News on BBC3 had only 67,000 more viewers than the iPlayer.
Of course, it could be argued that the comparable figure would be for all transmissions of episode one – which would boost the figures.
There is in fact another programme in the top 20 which may already have more iPlayer views – That Mitchell and Webb Look, series 2 episode 3, was a repeat, shown on BBC HD, for which BARB does not provide ratings. I’m going to guess that its quite likely the 156,000 views on the iPlayer were higher than the BBC HD rating.
The figures prompt a wider question - where would the iPlayer be without comedy? The latest figures, released by the BBC, for the top 20 most requested TV episodes on the iPlayer shows that half of the programmes in the table were comedy.
The programme topping the table was Question Time – the week with the BNP – with 928,000 views, compared with the BBC1 audience of 8.34 million. Interestingly the highest iPlayer audience for a comedy programme was Russell Howard’s Good News, shown on the same night as Question Time originally, on BBC3.
Although October’s figures for the iPlayer were at record levels – 79 million requests, of which 53 million were for TV programmes – I was surprised to see some of the figures. For instance, I would have imagined Top Gear would attract a lot of iPlayer viewing – but the highest episode in terms of the iPlayer had 230,000 viewers, compared with the 5 million who watched it on BBC2. That’s not really a watch again audience, is it?
So maybe some of the talk about the iPlayer is hyping it to levels that do no match reality of audiences.
| BBC iPLAYER TOP 20 TV EPISODES – MOST-REQUESTED EPISODE PER SERIES | Total requests per episode | Rating | | | | |
| 1Question Time 22/10/09 | 928,000 | BBC1 | 8.34m | 49% | 22nd Oct | 10.30pm |
| 2Life Episode 1 | 664,000 | BBC1 | 4.2m | 20% | 25-Oct | 6pm |
| 3Russell Howard's Good News Episode 1 | 410,000 | BBC3 | 487,000 | 3% | 22nd Oct | 10.30pm |
| 4Mock the Week Series 6 Episode 1 | 371,000 | BBC2 | 1.94m | 10% | 14-Oct | 10pm |
| 5Never Mind the Buzzcocks Series 23 Ep 2 | 362,000 | BBC2 | 2.3m | 9% | 08-Oct | 21.30pm |
| 6EastEnders 23/10/09 | 353,000 | BBC1 | 9.6m | 40% | 23-Oct | 8pm |
| 7Merlin Series 2 Episode 3 | 334,000 | BBC1 | 6.1m | 31% | 03-Oct | 6.15pm |
| 8Michael McIntyre's Comedy R’show Ep 1 | 321,000 | BBC1 | 2.4m | 16% | 04-Oct | 10.25pm |
| 9Strictly Come Dancing Series 7 Ep 5 | 317,000 | BBC1 | 8.4m | 31% | 17th Oct | 7.30pm |
| 10Emma Episode 1 | 240,000 | BBC1 | 4.8m | 17% | 04-Oct | 9pm |
| 11Have I Got News for You Series 38 Ep 1 | 233,000 | BBC1 | 5.7m | 23% | 16-Oct | 9pm |
| 12Top Gear Series 8 Episode 1 | 231,000 | BBC2 | 5m | 21% | 4th Oct | 7pm |
| 13Criminal Justice Series 2 Episode 1 | 229,000 | BBc1 | 4.9m | 19% | 5th Oct | 9pm |
| 14How Not To Live Your Life Series 2 Ep 4 | 192,000 | BBC3 | 445,000 | 3% | 6th Oct | 10.30pm |
| 15Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe 29/09/09 | 185,000 | BBC4 | 376,000 | 2% | 29th Sept | 10pm |
| 16Shooting Stars Series 6 Ep 6 | 179,000 | BBC2 | 1.9m | 10% | 30th Sept | 10pm |
| 17The Armstrong & Miller Show Series 2 Ep 2 | 179,000 | BBC1 | 4.5m | 18% | 23rd Oct | 9.30pm |
| 18Masterchef: The Professionals Series 2 Ep 29 | 173,000 | BBC2 | 4.3m | 17% | 22nd Oct | 8pm |
| 19The World's Strictest Parents Series 2 Ep 1 | 157,000 | BBC3 | 492,000 | 2% | 15th Oct | 9pm |
| 20That Mitchell and Webb Look Series 2 Ep 3 | 156,000 | BBC HD | no ratings available | 6th Oct | 00:30am | |
No comments:
Post a Comment