David Farnor | On 22, Jan 2021

A record number of kids, parents and teachers have turned to BBC iPlayer this month, as the Beeb steps up its educational offering during the current coronavirus lockdown.

From 11th January, BBC Two and CBBC have been broadcasting dedicated slots of educational programming catered to different groups. On the first day, CBBC saw its slot average (from 9am to 12pm) increase by 436 per cent while BBC Two saw its slow average (from 1pm to 3pm) an increase of 29 per cent.

The broadcasts on TV are primarily repeats of the content that was produced in the spring and summer of 2020, and are all available on-demand on BBC iPlayer. On day 1, BBC Bitesize Daily’s content on BBC iPlayer were requested 275k times, 12 per cent more than on their original launch day in April 2020, while Bitesize online attracted 1.6m unique visitors.

You can see our guide to the TV broadcasts, and the BBC iPlayer line-up, here.

Last week (from 11th to 17th January), children’s programming on BBC iPlayer was requested a record breaking 40.8m times as children continued to turn to the BBC. The figures are the highest BBC Children’s has ever achieved on iPlayer, beating last year’s record of 40.2m requests.

On BBC iPlayer, Bitesize Daily was requested 971k times with lessons for 5 to 7 year olds proving the most popular, accounting for 439k requests.

Lockdown Learning on BBC Two and CBBC also saw a big increase in audience numbers, with CBBC’s average audience for the slot increasing by 355 per cent across the week. The overnight average audience for BBC Two was 290k, a 5 per cent increase vs the slot average over the previous 52 weeks.

CBeebies programming performed particularly strongly on BBC iPlayer, breaking its own record for number of BBC iPlayer requests in a single week. In total there were 32.3m requests for CBeebies programming.

Patricia Hidalgo, Director of BBC Children’s and Education, says: “As with the last lockdown, BBC Children’s and Education continues to provide vital support, entertainment and educational resources for parents and children across the UK. We are thrilled that millions of households are making use of these services for home-schooling help and some much needed entertainment.”

Need help to keep the family entertained as well as educated during lockdown? See our homeschool streaming toolkit here.

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