The BBC has announced that more than a billion podcast of its radio programmes have been downloaded in the four and a half years since the service launched.
Daily podcasts from the World Service top the chart of most downloaded, while the most popular weekly BBC podcasts include Radio 4 Comedy, Chris Moyles and Mayo & Kermode’s Film Reviews.
BBC Radio say there are 320 podcast feeds available – ranging from news and comedy to sport and documentaries. The one billion total is made up from monthly, weekly, daily and ac hoc programmes available for download.
Mark Friend, Controller of Multiplatform and Interactive, BBC Audio & Music, says: “BBC Radio’s one billionth download shows how audiences value being able to listen to audio when and where they want. Downloadable content draws in new listeners to a wide range of content with nearly a third of people who download podcasts listening to radio programmes they hadn’t previously listened to. Downloadable content is good for our listeners and good for the industry.”
To celebrate reaching a billion downloads, the BBC is launching a special podcast called ‘One Billion Downloads: A Selection Box’. Five podcasts are available daily from today until Friday (16 Dec) and feature BBC presenters introducing their favourite free downloads from the BBC. Contributors include 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne, Radio 1’s Matt Edmondson, Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis from Radio 4’s Now Show, Radio 2/6 Music’s Stuart Maconie and Richard Bacon from BBC Radio 5 live.
The figures below show the total number of downloads for the most popular podcasts since the launch of the BBC Podcasting Service in July 2007.
Entire World Top 10 Daily Podcasts
1 Global News (World Service) 89m
2 Documentaries (World Service) 77m
3 NewsPod (Radio) 45m
4 Best Of Today (Radio 4) 41m
5 The Archers (Radio 4) 35m
6 Scott Mills Daily (Radio 1) 31m
7 A History Of The World In 100 Objects (Radio 4) 25m
8 5 live Football Daily (5 live) 16m
9 Business Daily (World Service) 14m
10 World Business Report (World Service) 11mEntire World Top 10 Weekly Podcasts
1 Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4 (Radio 4) 47m
2 Best Of Chris Moyles (Radio 1) 29m
3 Mark Kermode And Simon Mayo’s Film Reviews (5 live) 24m
4 Peter Day’s World of Business (Radio) 23m
5 Best Of Chris Moyles Enhanced (Radio 1) 21m
6 In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg (Radio 4) 20m
7 From Our Own Correspondent (Radio 4) 19m
8 6 Minute English (World Service) 17m
9 Chris Evans Breakfast – The Best Bits (Radio 2) 16m
10 The English We Speak (World Service) 12m
Posted on Monday, December 12th, 2011 at 10:29 am by RadioToday UK