McMafia helps iPlayer hit record high

BBC gangster drama McMafia

Crime drama McMafia helped BBC VoD service iPlayer to secure record-breaking viewing figures in January, the UK pubcaster has revealed.

The first episode of the James Norton-starring drama was streamed 3.4 million times during the month, and three other episodes of the series that aired later in January also feature in the top 10 most popular iPlayer programmes of the month.

The show is a coproduction between the BBC, AMC Networks in the US and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell prodco Cuba Pictures in association with Twickenham Studios.

Overall figures on iPlayer surged to a record-high 328 million requests across the month, a 10% increase on the same month last year. There was a record average of 10.6 million daily requests for TV content in January.

Returning drama Silent Witness also proved popular, securing 2.3 million requests for episodes, while Euston FIlms’ pre-apocalypse detective drama Hard Sun brought in 2.2 million.

Hard Sun was made available to watch on iPlayer as a boxset after the first episode aired, and the first three episodes of the series all made the top 20 most popular episodes of the month.

Dramas were the most-requested shows on iPlayer during January, according to the pubcaster, with episodes from McMafia, Silent Witness, Hard Sun and soap Eastenders taking the top 10 places.

In related news, online-only channel BBC3 has launched Perfect Day, a short film that documents how various people enjoy spending their time.

BBC3 recently secured £10m (US$13.85m) in additional programming budget to support the launch of a new editorial pillar.