David Farnor | On 28, Apr 2016

BBC Three is off a strong start on the web, with its original drama, Thirteen, joining The Night Manager at the top of BBC iPlayer’s March chart.

BBC One’s adaptation of the John le Carre novel, starring Tom Hiddleston, dominated activity on the Beeb’s catch-up service last month, with Episode 3 peaking at 2.013 million requests. All six episodes of the show were in the top 20 most popular episodes for March, each of them getting at least 1 million requests (including episodes 1 and 2 which, impressively, first became available in February).

The only other programme to manage that achievement was Thirteen, which saw all five episodes feature in the top 20 episodes for the month. Episode 1 of the series drew 1.89 million requests alone, with Episode 2 requested 1.86 million times – both ahead of Episode of The Night Manager.

Together, that strong helping of drama helped to boost requests for TV programmes 2 per cent month-on-month, with increases across both computer and big screen devices. Average daily TV requests dropped from 8.2 to 7.9 million, although the month also saw an undercount of 8 million requests involving Xbox and Android devices, so that decline may not be entirely accurate.

The figures emphasise the importance of drama in the BBC’s line-up, but also highlights the strong performance of BBC Three in its maiden months. By programme, rather than by episode, BBC Three is clearly finding an audience, with the online TV channel accounting for one quarter of the top 20 shows: Thirteen is joined in the chart by Sex in Strange Places – Turkey (918k requests), Life and Death Row (Season 2, Episode 3 – 643k), Cuckoo (Season 3, Episode 3 – 640k) and Young, Welsh and Pretty Skint (Episode 1 – 587k).

For more on BBC iPlayer, see our weekly highlights column – and for more on BBC Three, see our guide to what’s coming soon.

 

Photo: Sophie Mutevelian

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