Digital TV News

New Doctor Who debut boosts iPlayer figures

Tuesday 20 April, 2010

By Becca Talbot - becca@consumerchoices.co.uk

Over 1 million Doctor Who fans have logged onto the BBC iPlayer to watch Matt Smith’s debut as the new Time Lord, in the first episode of the new series.

Long-running cult series Doctor Who has set a new record for the BBC iPlayer, after the programme received 1.27 million hits in the first seven days after its broadcast on BBC1.

The first episode of the new series, entitled The Eleventh Hour, saw Matt Smith debut as the new Time Lord, accompanied by his sidekick Amy Pond, played by Karen Gillian.

The hour-long special episode aired over the Easter weekend, and BBC figures found that 10.2 million Brits tuned in to watch it.

Over 1.2 million have since watched the episode on the BBC’s on-demand catch-up TV service, the iPlayer, setting a new record for the programme with the most requests in a week.

Jon Ingram, operations director at Digitalchoices.co.uk, said: “The most watched programme on the iPlayer in 2009 was a Top Gear special, with over 1.6 million views, but Doctor Who isn’t far behind. It’ll be interesting to see if the new series is popular with both new and old fans of the Doctor.”

The next episode - the third in the latest series - will be broadcast on Saturday 24 April at 6.20pm on BBC1, and be made available on the BBC iPlayer for seven days after that.

The BBC iPlayer is a free service and is available to watch online, on Virgin Media’s on-demand menu and on Freesat if you have a Humax set-top box. It can also be viewed on mobile phones, such as the iPhone, and via games consoles such as the Nintendo Wii and the Sony PS3.