BBC iPlayer enjoyed a record week between Christmas and new year as viewers turned away from traditional television channels in favour of on-demand and streaming services.

Viewers streamed more programmes and spent more time on iPlayer between Monday 25 December and Sunday 31 December than any other week.

There were 69.2m requests to watch programmes on iPlayer during the week and viewers spent 25.6m hours on the service. This compares with 58.6m requests and 22.5m hours between 25 December and 31 December last year.

Watching television at Christmas is a long-standing tradition but viewing figures on the main channels such as BBC and ITV have fallen to a record low in recent years, as increasing numbers of people have turned to on-demand services such as Netflix or DVD boxsets instead.



The BBC adapted to the change in viewing habits for Christmas 2017 by making popular programmes from its archive available on iPlayer, including Peaky Blinders, Line of Duty, Planet Earth and Blue Planet.

Charlotte Moore, the BBC director of content, said: “It’s hugely exciting to see such unprecedented numbers come to BBC iPlayer this Christmas. The public have responded in their millions to the amazing range of content we’ve offered – and for those who are loving our special Christmas box-set collection there are still a few days to go.”

The extra programmes have been requested 29.4m times since they were made available – an average of more than 1.5m a day. The most popular box sets include Peaky Blinders, which has been requested more than 8m times.

The most popular individual show on iPlayer during the festive period was the Christmas Day episode of EastEnders, which was requested 1.6m times. Six of the top 10 shows on iPlayer were episodes of EastEnders, with other popular programmes including the series four finale of Peaky Blinders and the Christmas specials of Doctor Who and Mrs Brown’s Boys.

Mrs Brown’s Boys was also one of the most watched shows on BBC1 on Christmas Day. The top Christmas Day programme was Call the Midwife, which attracted 9.6 million viewers, while Mrs Brown’s Boys was watched by 9 million, and Strictly Come Dancing and EastEnders were watched by more than 8 million viewers.

Although the BBC said its Christmas performance was “strong”, the Christmas Day viewing figures compare unfavourably with the 16 million who watched Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death in 2008.