BBC iPlayer saw a record 141 million streams during New Year week (27th December-3rd January), a rise of up 6% on the same week last year, with a further 143 million streams last week.
The free streaming service also recorded its best festive day ever with 22m streams on Sunday 2nd January, thanks in part to the arrival of Jamie Dornan’s The Tourist which has become the third most successful drama launch of all time with over 18m million streams so far.
Meanwhile the first episode of A Very British Scandal has topped the list of most streamed individual episodes across the whole festive period (21st December-3rd January) with 2.3m streams, the Call the Midwife Christmas special clocked up 1.6m streams and the EastEnders Christmas Day outing got 1.5m.
In total the soap was streamed 15.9m times between December 21st and January 3r , making it the BBC’s most streamed brand.
Charlotte Moore, BBC’s Chief Content Officer said: “2022 on the BBC has started with a bang with record viewing across Christmas and New Year on BBC iPlayer.
“Millions of people chose to watch our unrivalled range of box-sets and Christmas specials live on our channels, or binge on-demand across the festive season – paving the way for the BBC’s centenary, a landmark year that will look forward and celebrate British creativity across the whole of the UK.”