Broadband News

BBC iPlayer tops 75m requests

Garnet Roach garnet@consumerchoices.co.uk

The BBC has revealed that its ever popular iPlayer has received more than 75 million requests to stream or download programmes (27-05-08).

The full BBC iPlayer version was launched on Christmas Day last year and has continued to go from strength to strength - and cause a stir among broadband providers - ever since.

Ashley Highfield, BBC Director of Future Media & Technology, revealed that the requests to download and stream programmes topped 21 million last month alone, up from 17.2 million in March - a 20 per cent month on month increase.

"Make sure that you completely shut the program down and that it’s not running in the background"

The number of average users also continued to rise, reaching 1.4 million in April - almost double January’s average of 750,000 with Dr Who and The Apprentice proving the most popular.

Last month the BBC iPlayer was launched on Virgin Media's (www.VirginMedia.com) cable television allowing customers to watch missed programmes directly on their TVs for the first time.

A number of providers, such as Tiscali (www.Tiscali.co.uk) and Carphone Warehouse, owner of AOL (www.AOL.co.uk) and TalkTalk (www.TalkTalk.co.uk) voiced concerns last year about the strain that a free, quality internet TV streaming and download service such as the BBC iPlayer would have on their networks, saying that download allowances could become tighter as increasing numbers downloaded TV programmes from the internet.

Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director, warned BBC iPlayer fans to keep an eye on their download limits to avoid be fined or having their connection reduced to dial-up speed.

“The BBC iPlayer - and its Channel 4, Sky Broadband (www.Sky.com) and ITV counterparts all use peer-to-peer networks to upload and download programmes so if you’re not careful you could end up really eating into your download allowance without realising it.

“Make sure that you completely shut the program down and that it’s not running in the background, and it's also a good idea to install our free Broadband Download Monitor to ensure that you never exceed your monthly limit,” he advised.

Related article - Top tips for downloaders.

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