Performance Report December 2018 Richard Bell, BBC iplayer BBC Communications 07725641207 Richard.Bell@bbc.co.uk
December 2018 summary December saw a total of 298m requests for TV programmes overall, and an average of 9.6m requests per day. The first episode of Mrs Wilson, the BBC One drama based on a real-life story, was the most requested programme in December. With 2.1m requests, it pipped The Apprentice to the top spot, where the strongest episode Christmas Chocolate got 1.8m requests. Christmas Day programmes EastEnders and Call the Midwife also made the top 20 list of programmes, with 1.4m and 1.3m requests respectively. TV platforms have continued to grow over recent years, and in December made up a record-equalling 57% of overall requests. We last saw this share in tember 2018, when strong drama content drew audiences to watching BBC iplayer on the best screen in the house. Consistent with previous months: Live requests for programmes and events on BBC iplayer remained consistent with previous months, at 17% of total requests. The profile of BBC iplayer users remains strongly under-55 in terms of age, which is younger than the typical TV viewer s profile (although more in line with home broadband users). BBC iplayer is used for TV at roughly the same time of day as linear TV viewing, although there is proportionally more daytime and later-peak use. Slide 2
Index Page Content 4-5 Monthly BBC iplayer TV programme requests 6 Weekly TV programme requests by device type 7 Live vs on-demand TV requests 8 Notes about the data in this report 9 Top TV programmes 10 Use of BBC iplayer for TV viewing by time of day 11 Profile of BBC iplayer users 12 Glossary Slide 3
Jan-09 t Jan-10 Jan-11 Jan-12 Jan-13 Jan-14 Jan-15 Jan-16 Jan-17 Jan-18 t Millions of requests per month Monthly BBC iplayer requests across all platforms, since 2009 In December and during the festive period, BBC iplayer saw 298m requests for TV programmes overall, ending a year which saw record-breaking request levels in tember. TV requests artificially inflated* DATA SOURCE CHANGE December: 298m Measurement correction* 242 Data missing* 273 250 298 328 145 212 298 127 86 January figures shown on graph * Please refer to slide 8 for guide notes on months with data caveats Slide 4
Jan-09 t Jan-10 Jan-11 Jan-12 Jan-13 Jan-14 Jan-15 Jan-16 Jan-17 Jan-18 t Millions of requests per day (average monthly) Average daily BBC iplayer online requests There was an average of 9.6m requests per day to TV programmes in BBC iplayer. TV requests artificially inflated* DATA SOURCE CHANGE December: 9.6m Measurement correction* Data missing * 8.8 8.1 9.6 10.6 9.6 7.8 6.8 4.7 4.1 2.9 January figures shown on graph Please refer to slide 8 for guide notes Slide 5
Apr-16 Jun-16 Aug-16 Oct-16 Dec-16 Feb-17 Apr-17 Jun-17 Aug-17 Oct-17 Dec-17 Feb-18 Apr-18 Jun-18 Aug-18 Oct-18 Dec-18 Apr-16 Jun-16 Aug-16 Oct-16 Dec-16 Feb-17 Apr-17 Jun-17 Aug-17 Oct-17 Dec-17 Feb-18 Apr-18 Jun-18 Aug-18 Oct-18 Dec-18 Millions Requests for TV programmes by device type TV platforms have continued to grow over recent years, and in December made up a record-equalling 57% of overall requests. We last saw this share in tember 2018, when strong drama content drew audiences to watching BBC iplayer on the best screen in the house. Number of requests (millions) % of requests 400 350 DATA SOURCE CHANGE 100% DATA SOURCE CHANGE 4% 1% 1% 1% 1% 2% 300 31% 44% 45% 51% 54% 57% 250 200 150 100 50 123 105 70 60 27 33 127 59 29 171 170 66 51 31 33 Unknown TV Platform Tablet Mobile Computer 60% 21% 26% 26% 25% 11% 12% 23% 21% 17% 11% 10% 11% - 42 45 35 44 38 0% 17% 14% 14% 13% Please refer to slide 8 for guide notes. Slide 6
Jan-16 Feb-16-16 Apr-16-16 Jun-16-16 Aug-16-16 Oct-16-16 Dec-16 Jan-17 Feb-17-17 Apr-17-17 Jun-17-17 Aug-17-17 Oct-17-17 Dec-17 Jan-18 Feb-18-18 Apr-18-18 Jun-18-18 Aug-18-18 Oct-18-18 Dec-18 72% 92% 93% 93% 93% 93% 89% 81% 85% 85% 83% 85% 83% 84% 83% 84% 82% 79% 82% 83% 82% 82% 81% 82% 82% 79% 81% 81% 73% 78% 85% 84% 84% 83% 83% 28% 8% 7% 7% 7% 7% 11% 19% 15% 15% 17% 15% 17% 16% 17% 16% 21% 17% 19% 21% 19% 19% 27% 22% 15% 16% 16% 17% 17% Live versus on-demand requests for TV programmes Live requests for programmes and events on BBC iplayer remained consistent with the last few months, at 17% of total requests. In 2018, live requests peaked in June, with 27% of the total, when audiences watched World Cup matches live on BBC iplayer. % requests for TV programmes 100% On-demand Live DATA SOURCE CHANGE 90% 70% 60% 50% 30% 10% 0% Notes: Source switched from istats AV to Streamsense in Adobe Digital Analytix (istats) in y 2016 Please refer to slide 8 for guide notes. Slide 7
Notes for figures in this report Data issues to note Figures for Sky are undercounted in June 2017 by approximately 0.5m requests. Figures for Virgin Cable and Sky are estimates for tember 2016. Games console requests were undercounted in January 2016, and Android devices were undercounted from 16th to 31 st ch 2016. TV requests were inflated in August and tember 2015 by around 18-25%, please treat these figures with caution when looking at trends. Some TV request data was not captured in ch 2015 (estimated 17m requests). Some TV request data is also missing for 2014 - about 3.5m requests in August and 11.5m requests in tember from computer devices, and about 6m requests are missing in December, across all device types. We are not including these estimates in the graphs in this report. The remainder of this report excludes data from Virgin Media cable and Sky. The data arrives later than that from other platforms and is not currently consolidated within BBC Digital Analytics systems. These notes below apply to all the data in this pack and should be included as footnotes when quoting any of these figures. A glossary is on the final page of the pack. Prior to y 2016, requests data was measured via a BBC in-house system (BBC istats AV). Since y 2016 the source has changed to StreamSense by Adobe Digital Analytix. Data is broadly comparable, and most step-changes are due to device categorisation correction, and a small amount of data missing from BBC istats AV (such as live TV viewing on TV platforms, and webcasts). In 2009 the BBC refined its methodology for measuring AV requests, so figures for 2007/8 are not comparable. Note on the top 20 lists for TV episodes: these show the most-requested individual episodes for the month, for interest, but only represent a fraction of all the episodes available on iplayer. They are indicative only, since they do not represent total request numbers per series, and are only measured in the calendar month. Unless specified otherwise, figures include requests for both on-demand catch-up (streams and downloads), or views of live simulcasts. All data is for the UK only. Requests are counted for BBC iplayer on any BBC website or application whether on a programme, channel or station page, or on the BBC iplayer websites or bespoke mobile or TV apps. This report does not include requests for web-only content (such as online news or sport coverage). Webcasts are only included if they have been made available through BBC iplayer. Figures in this report include requests for programmes which are only on iplayer, as well as for programmes previously shown on linear TV. On average this has boosted the totals by 2% since 2014. Slide 8
BBC iplayer - top 20 TV episodes, December 2018 (excluding Virgin Media cable and Sky) The first episode of Mrs Wilson, the BBC One drama based on a real-life story, was the most requested programme in December. With 2.1m requests, it pipped The Apprentice to the top spot, with the strongest episode Christmas Chocolate getting 1.8m requests. BBC iplayer Top 20 TV episodes All Total requests per ep. Mrs Wilson Series 1 Episode 1 2,147,000 Mrs Wilson Series 1 Episode 2 1,963,000 The Apprentice Series 14 Christmas Chocolate 1,810,000 The Apprentice Series 14 Interviews 1,693,000 Mrs Wilson Series 1 Episode 3 1,676,000 The Apprentice Series 14 The Final 1,614,000 Dynasties Series 1 Painted Wolf 1,445,000 EastEnders 25/12/2018 1,404,000 Strictly Come Dancing Series 16 The Final 1,334,000 Dynasties Series 1 Tiger 1,298,000 Call the Midwife Christmas Special 2018 1,297,000 The ABC Murders Series 1 Episode 1 1,262,000 EastEnders 26/12/2018 1,211,000 Dynasties Series 1 Chimpanzee 1,170,000 EastEnders 27/12/2018 1,080,000 EastEnders 14/12/2018 1,076,000 EastEnders 21/12/2018 1,073,000 Strictly Come Dancing Series 16 Week 12 1,017,000 EastEnders 18/12/2018 1,009,000 Strictly Come Dancing Series 16 Week 11 1,007,000 BBC iplayer Top 20 TV episodes most requested episode per series Total requests per ep. Mrs Wilson Series 1 Episode 1 2,147,000 The Apprentice Series 14 Christmas Chocolate 1,810,000 Dynasties Series 1 Painted Wolf 1,445,000 EastEnders 25/12/2018 1,404,000 Strictly Come Dancing Series 16 The Final 1,334,000 Call the Midwife Christmas Special 2018 1,297,000 The ABC Murders Series 1 Episode 1 1,262,000 Doctor Who Series 11 It Takes You Away 946,000 Match of the Day 2018/19 22/12/2018 941,000 Mrs Brown's Boys Christmas Specials 2018 Exotic Mammy 815,000 Care 09/12/2018 775,000 The Long Song Series 1 Episode 1 774,000 Casualty Series 33 Episode 16 611,000 Michael McIntyre's Big Show Series 4 Christmas Special 598,000 Click and Collect 583,000 Watership Down Series 1 Episode 1 Chapter 1 558,000 The Little Drummer Girl Series 1 Episode 6 555,000 Zog 25/12/2018 544,000 MasterChef: The Professionals Series 11 Episode 13 536,000 Have I Got News for You Series 56 Episode 10 534,000 Please refer to slide 8 for guide notes Slide 9
Note: each line has a very different scale (see peaks) 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00 00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 BBC iplayer use for TV online by time of day, December 2018 The scale for each line on this graph is different traditional TV viewing is far higher than BBC iplayer use. However it shows the relative usage pattern by time of day with BBC iplayer use (for TV) being closer to the pattern of TV viewing, than of internet use, with proportionally more viewing in daytime and late peak. Internet peak 28.4 million iplayer TV peak 806,000 TV peak 23 million Please refer to slide 12 for guide notes Slide 10
43% 39% 37% 46% 45% 45% 39% 36% 57% 52% 52% 51% 52% 50% 48% 47% 48% 39% 39% 39% 35% 37% 38% 37% 33% 44% 48% 49% 49% 48% 50% 52% 53% 52% 19% 21% 22% 23% 19% 25% 31% TV & iplayer Product: demographics of BBC iplayer users In 2018 there were slightly more women using BBC iplayer than men, and it remains predominantly under-55 years in terms of age. 100% 100% 60% 0% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Women Men METHOD CHANGE IN 2014 60% 0% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 55+ 35-54 16-34 100% Gender (latest 4 quarters) 100% Age (latest 4 quarters) 53% 51% 51% 31% 34% 38% 60% 47% 49% 49% Women Men 60% 33% 35% 33% 36% 31% 29% 55+ 35-54 16-34 0% Users of BBC iplayer Home broadband users All TV viewers 0% Users of BBC iplayer Home broadband users All TV viewers Sources: ART (1000 UK adults each month) or CMI from Q1 14 onwards / BARB. Data up to Q3 2018 for Home Broadband and All TV, Q32 2018 for iplayer users. Slide 11
Glossary Requests the number of successful requests to stream or download a programme. We only count successful requests, where a stream or a download actually starts, rather than clicks which can be repeated if the user does not see an immediate reaction on the website. Requests are made up of two components: Stream click to play instantly Download save to your device to play later. We report download playback, rather than downloads, where possible. Catch-up / on-demand programmes requested after they have gone out on traditional TV and are available on BBC iplayer. Live / simulcast streaming of live TV channels on the service, at exactly the same time as broadcast on traditional TV. Since 2016, this data also includes webcasts of live events that are available through BBC iplayer but not available on linear TV. Extra footnotes for slide 10 showing data for time of day TV data BARB average audience, live overnights, by hour, all individuals aged 4+, Total TV BBC iplayer - average requests, by hour, all programmes, stream & downloading, live and on-demand, UK only Nielsen user numbers, aged 2+ based on internet population estimate of 38 million individuals Slide 12