Yahoo News BBC iPlayer breaks records over Christmas
BBC iPlayer broke new records over the festive period, thanks to Christmas visits to Albert Square and Nonnatus House.
The BBC reports that iPlayer saw 245 million streams over the Christmas period (from December 21 to January 3) which is up by 16 per cent on the same period last year.
The Christmas Day episode of EastEnders topped the list as the most viewed programme of the festive fortnight, with over 1.5 million streams.
Related: BBC reveals most-streamed show of 2020 on iPlayer
The soap itself was comfortably the most popular programme over the whole period, with more than 13.8 million streams.
The second most popular programme of the period was the Call the Midwife Christmas special, which had over 1.4 million streams.
New dramas The Serpent, starring Jenna Coleman, and Black Narcissus, starring Gemma Arterton, also helped drive the numbers up, as well as Christmas specials from Mrs Brown's Boys and Doctor Who.
iPlayer also had help from Peter Parker, as over 1.4 million streamed Spider-Man: Homecoming over the period.
New Year’s Day was the biggest day for iPlayer with 21.2 million streams, up 10 per cent from the year before.
January 1 also saw 7.93 million unique browsers visit the streamer, breaking the record for unique browsers visiting iPlayer in a single day.
The previous record was 7.8 million unique browsers. That happened on October 31, 2020, when further lockdown restrictions in England were announced.
Charlotte Moore, Chief Content Officer, commented: "The unparalleled range of programmes on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds delivered a record breaking Christmas this year.
"More people chose a personalised version of the BBC and sought out content on a scale we’ve not seen before from the breadth of entertainment and escapism available."
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