Surge in usage of BBC iPlayer prompts upwards revision of online TV forecasts

February 8, 2008 – A surge in usage of the BBC’s iPlayer has prompted research firm Screen Digest to revise upwards its forecasts for the UK’s online TV market, reflecting the “emerging prominence” of the free-to-view (FTV) model.

Screen Digest reports that there were 0.8bn free-to-view online TV streams and downloads by UK broadband households in 2007, of which the BBC iPlayer accounted for 38%.  This total figure is expected to rise to 1.5bn in 2008 and hit 2.8bn by 2012.

Free-to-view online TV revenues in the UK are predicted to increase from £19mn in 2007 to £98mn in 2012, due to the “dominance of the BBC’s services, and lack of clear strategies of commercial broadcasters”.

“Screen Digest is monitoring the development of the market,” said Arash Amel, Senior Analyst for Screen Digest.  “Our long-term financial outlook of the UK online TV sector will now be dependant on the future development of convincing platform strategies by UK commercial broadcasters ITV, Channel 4 and Five, as well as new entrants such as Bebo, MySpace, YouTube and Joost.

“It is expected that the success of the BBC’s iPlayer open Web streaming model, and future ‘viral syndication’ strategies, will encourage UK commercial broadcasters to enter a long term reassessment of how they deliver programming to users.”