BBC iPlayer requests dropped for the third consecutive month in April prompting platform boss Dan Taylor-Watt to write a blog putting the figures in context.
Total requests to the on-demand service fell from 278m in March to 271m in April, although this drop may be greater as the BBC failed to capture around 10m TV viewing requests in March.
The BBC’s latest monthly report reveals iPlayer figures have repeatedly fallen since iPlayer peaked with a record 343m requests in January, before falling to 299m in February.
April’s most viewed shows included Peter Kay’s Car Share, which attracted 1.5m for its first episode, while Poldark and Ordinary Lies also attracted more than 1m requests.
iPlayer requests remained up in April, compared with the previous year when the service received 260m requests. However in March 2014 it generated 320m requests, well above this year’s figure of 278m.
In a post on the About the BBC blog, head of BBC iPlayer Taylor-Watt said growth was likely to slow as it matured.
“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 UK and those who are most comfortable using video on demand services like BBC iPlayer,” he said. “The challenge for us now is to get everyone using iPlayer.”
He added iPlayer was now operating in a much more competitive market compared with 2007, when the service launched.
Taylor-Watt also pointed out iPlayer viewing was seasonal, peaking in the winter months, and was strongly tied to the success of linear programming.
Short-form video and iPlayer exclusives are also not recorded in the BBC’s figures to enable like-for-like comparisons to be made.
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