The BBC's perennially popular iPlayer video streaming service has experienced its first ever drop in popularity since launching in 2007. Requests to watch the service's shows fell seven percent in March to around 230 million, compared with the same month in 2014. This is a surprising drop, particularly as many media companies continue to report growth in streaming services. Audio-streamer Spotify is even rumoured to be launching a video service over the coming months. Overall, iPlayer grew just two percent year-on-year for the first three months of 2015, the slowest on record.

The drop in viewers follows news that the broadcaster plans to close its global subscription-based iPlayer app next month. The app allowed users in Western Europe, Australia, and Canada to view BBC programmes, including hit shows like Top Gear, Doctor Who, and Sherlock. European users were charged a €5.99 (£4.30) monthly fee, Canadians $6.99 (£3.70), and Australians $7.49 (£3.80). However, early reports around the launch of the service suggested that US cable networks prevented it from launching in America, due to the fact that iPlayer carried the same content as the BBC America channel. Supposedly, the networks threatened to drop BBC America completely if iPlayer launched in the US.

iPlayer was a pioneering video streaming platform on its launch in 2007 as web-based service. Since then, the BBC has gone on to launch applications for Android and iOS, as well as for set-top boxes like Roku and games consoles like the PlayStation 4. At one point iPlayer was said to account for more than half of the UK's digital TV audience. Most recently, the popularity of iPlayer led EU officials to propose a "digital single market" that would allow UK users to continue to use the service without restriction.

In a statement, the broadcaster said that iPlayer "continues to perform strongly," and that "variations of factors influence viewing figures." Others, however, claim that iPlayer has become "too conservative," and has failed to adapt to the short-form content popularised by YouTube. The fall in viewers also casts doubts on whether closing the BBC Three channel and moving it to iPlayer only is a wise move, even if it saves the broadcaster an estimated £50 million a year.