By Jonathan Easton

The BBC has recorded its best Q3 on record for its VOD service BBC iPlayer.

In the period from July to September 2021, viewers streamed programmes 1.5 billion times. This was up 20 per cent on the same period in 2020 and up 49 per cent on the same period in 2019.

Somewhat surprisingly, the BBC’s coverage of the UEFA Men’s Euro 2020 final between England and Italy was only the second most popular programme of the quarter, streamed more than 6.0 million times.

However it was the opening episode of submarine thriller Vigil that proved to be the most-streamed programme – with 6.8 million streams during the quarter (and 7.7 million streams to date).

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics was the most-watched series overall across the quarter, streamed over 90 million times. Factoring in both iPlayer and BBC Sport, viewers watched 104 million streams of the Olympics.

This was followed by evergreen soap EastEnders, which was streamed 74 million times across the quarter.

Director of BBC iPlayer and channels, Dan McGolpin said: “These results show the fantastic breadth of content available for all on BBC iPlayer including the country’s biggest sporting moments, enthralling new drama series like Vigil and captivating documentaries like 9/11: Inside the President’s War Room.  iPlayer has something for everyone and people are using it more than ever, viewing grew 20 per cent year-on-year to our best Q3 on record and we are on track for our best ever year.”