Record-breaking month for BBC iPlayer

Last February drew an average of 1.4m users a day

February 2010 proved a record-breaking month for BBC iPlayer, with a rise of 81 per cent on February 2009 for the number of TV programme requests.

Daily requests reached 3.5m in Febuary, while the month as a whole drew an average of 1.4 million users per day.

The live episode of EastEnders proved the iPlayer's most popular TV show in February with more than 1.1m requests.

Consolidated viewing figures for the live special - across all channels but excluding the iPlayer - reached 18.8m.

Viewing figures for the live episode on BBC One alone, on 19 February, peaked at 16.6 million, with an average audience of 15.6m.

EastEnders: Live saw Stacey Slater reveal she murdered Archie Mitchell

The episode marked the culmination of a long-running plot to discover who killed Archie Mitchell on Christmas Day.

"The best birthday present EastEnders could possibly have is to know that 25 years in it can still grab the biggest audience in the UK," said John Yorke, Controller Drama Production & New Talent.

The iPlayer notched up a total of 116.4 million requests last month, including a record breaking 68.7 million requests for TV programmes alone.

New benchmarks were set for both TV shows - with an average of 2.5 million requests daily, and radio programmes - with an average of 1.1 million requests daily.

Sixty four minutes was the average amount of time people spent on the iPlayer per week watching TV programmes last month, while 163 minutes was the weekly average for radio.

The iPlayer is now in its third year and is available on more than 20 different devices, including games consoles and mobile phones.