PCs hit hard as mobiles and tablets overtake iPlayer viewing

PCs on the out as mobiles and tablets overtake iPlayer viewing
Alfie Moon - not impressed with the fall of the PC, Kat a bit more so

It wasn't a bad year for iPlayer in 2012, with the BBC's on-demand service raking in more requests for TV programmes than ever before.

For the first time, the humble PC fell to less than half of all total iPlayer requests in December 2012 as mobiles and tablets took centre stage.

The nation as a whole seems to be fully embracing the whole iPlayer thing, with Brits spending 34 per cent more time watching TV shows in iPlayer than ever before, and a giant 177 per cent leap in people accessing the service from mobiles and tablets.

Downloads

Downloads of the iPlayer mobile apps hit 14 million across the year, possibly helped along by the BBC's introduction of offline downloads in September 2012 - although it's only on iOS at the moment, it still garnered 10.8 million programme downloads.

The most popular show of the year was the Tim Berners-Lee-featuring Olympics Opening Ceremony industro-rave, which nabbed 3,326 million views on catch-up alone.

Other winners in the great iPlayer popularity contest were Top Gear, Sherlock, The Apprentice, Doctor Who and, against all the odds, The Voice UK.

And, proving that New Year's Day is the most tedious day of the year, January 1 2013 saw the most requests ever seen in 24 hours.

News Editor (UK)

Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.