Record number of kids using BBC services
July 23, 2020
On BBC iPlayer, programme requests for CBeebies and CBBC shows were up by 81 per cent from April to June at an average of 38 million every week. Children’s shows accounted for a quarter of all iPlayer requests, with Hey Duggee the most watched show during lockdown with more than 67 million requests.
The Newsround website continued its incredible online growth of 2019, setting a new weekly record of 1.7m users in the first week of May with the average online audience up around 25 per cent over the first three months of lockdown.
More than 700,000 users have used at least one of the four CBeebies apps every week. Playtime Island relaunched in May to sit alongside Go Explore, Get Creative and Storytime and latest evidence shows one in four pre-schoolers use a BBC Children’s app each week.
The CBBC website has seen over 500k weekly visitors on average across lockdown, up +57 per cent compared to the same period last year. The CBeebies website has been visited by over 300k unique visitors nearly every week with the average for the same period last year being 257k.
Over on CBeebies Radio, pre-schoolers have been tuning in in their droves with audiences up 151 per cent compared to the same timeframe in 2019.
Sophy Jacob, Acting Director of BBC Children’s and Education, said: “Whilst these have been unprecedented times, we’ve known children are increasingly consuming our content through our digital platforms for many years. These numbers not only reflect how audiences of all ages turn to the BBC in difficult times, but also the need for our content to be available in all of the ways our audience want it. Our young audience is constantly evolving and so it’s incredibly important that we are too.”