New BBC iPlayer stats reveal a nation of sporting radio addicts

New BBC iPlayer stats reveal a nation of sporting radio addicts
Even the Moons are in for tennis

The BBC has revealed its monthly dose of iPlayer stats and in the process outed the entire nation as sporting fanatics.

July was definitely a popular month for sport in the UK, what with Wimbledon finally producing the first Scottish (sorry, British) male champion since 1936.

Because of this, the Wimbledon Men's Final crept into the top 10 of shows watched – beaten by the Beeb's usual bunch of TV shows, Luther, The Apprentice, Top Gear, EastEnders, Waterloo Road and The White Queen.

Radio-wise, it was sport all the way with The Ashes Test Match Special the most requested show (693,000 requests) and Wimbledon taking up four of the top five spots.

According to the BBC, there were a record number of radio requests in July - 77m, to be precise - and we were listening to the radio on mobile devices more than ever before.

Nine of the top ten radio requests were for The Ashes as listeners, er, listened on the go.

Feeling peaky

Overall, requests were slightly down on June but, interestingly, the stats does show that peak time on iPlayer is moving closer and closer to television's traditional peak times. Peak is usually around 21:00 on TV, whereas it is 22:00 on iPlayer.

When it comes to mobile viewing this has stayed relatively flat with 31% of total requests coming from phones and tablets.

Unfortunately, the BBC's stats exclude Virgin and Sky users so we don't have a perfect picture of on-demand use in the UK but it is the closest thing we have to seeing how television tastes are changing.

Here's hoping the likes of Netflix and Lovefilm follow suit and start being a little bit more open with their data.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.