BBC iPlayer Radio – 74m requests in April

Radio via the BBC iPlayer saw a record-breaking 74 million requests for audio last month, up three per cent on March figures.

Eighty-four per cent of that figure was for live listening, with daytime programmes getting the peak figures.

The death of Baroness Thatcher drove radio requests with BBC Radio 5 live’s Shelagh Fogarty and Richard Bacon programmes topping the radio requests lists as people tuned in on the 8th of March to listen to the latest news.

Radio 4’s Today programme and 5 live’s coverage of the funeral on the 17th of April also appear in the top 20. Radio 4 comedies and coverage of the London Marathon also performed well.

Overall, 257 million BBC iPlayer requests were made in April – slightly lower than the last couple of months. The corporation says this is likely to be the impact of the Easter holidays and lighter evenings as British Summer Time began.