BBC Defends iPlayer Amid Reports of Recent Usage Drops

LONDON: While the BBC's latest monthly report reveals that iPlayer figures have fallen for the third consecutive month, Dan Taylor-Watt, the head of BBC iPlayer, is defending the performance in a blog post to "correct some misleading headlines."

"There were a number of articles suggesting iPlayer’s popularity is on the wane—and March was the first dip in iPlayer’s history (which you’ll see is not true)," Taylor-Watt wrote.

He explained that iPlayer usage changes significantly depending on the season, with higher volumes of requests in the fall and winter months, and lower volumes in the spring and summer. Within this, there are also times, for example around the London 2012 Olympics, where specific content or a major event "bucks the iPlayer trend"—with high levels of usage in the summer months. He also maintains that, as the majority of iPlayer consumption is still catch-up TV, there is a strong link between what’s broadcast on TV and programs requested on iPlayer.

His comments come as the BBC reported that iPlayer drew 271 million requests to view TV and radio shows in April, down from 278 million in March and 299 million in February. These 271 million requests were, however, up from the 268 million in April 2014. TV requests at 218 million were up by 14 million compared to April 2014.

"Changes in iPlayer performance can also, unfortunately, be the result of measurement issues," Taylor-Watt explained. "When BBC iPlayer launched back in 2007, we only had to capture computer usage of a single website. Now iPlayer is available on over 1,700 different devices and platforms—ranging from smart TVs, game consoles, mobiles, tablets and obviously still on computers. Making sure we successfully capture all usage is an ongoing challenge and in recent months we know we’ve significantly undercounted requests from TV devices."

He added, "We know even though iPlayer usage continues to grow, it won’t be at such a rapid pace. There are, after all, a limited number of people in the U.K. and those who are most comfortable using video on demand services like BBC iPlayer."

Taylor-Watt said that he is "really excited about iPlayer’s future—making the best service of its kind in the world even better. We want a thriving video-on-demand market in the U.K. and will continue to share our stats on the future performance of BBC iPlayer, whether it’s a strong month or a seasonal dip. I’m looking forward to an exciting time ahead."