The BBC’s iPlayer catch-up TV service has enjoyed it’s biggest ever audience figures in December (up 29% from 2010), with the huge jump in requests from not from computers, but connected devices such as connected TV sets, tablets and smartphones.

The BBC have revealed that for the month of December, they received 187 million views from all platforms. But the big change was from which devices. 7 million requests from connected TV sets. An astonishing 1000% increse from December 2010. Tablets, including iPad had a 596% increase with 10 million requests and smartphones got an increase of 163% with 13 million programmes requested.

In total the iPlayer had 1.94 billion requests during the year 2011, showing that both online TV and internet-connected devices are making a real dent in the market. BBC general manager for programmes and on-demand, Daniel Danker said, “While 2011 was a remarkable year for BBC iPlayer across the board, the real story was growth of iPlayer on TVs, mobile phones, and tablets, outpacing PC growth many times over.”

Although the growth of internet-enabled devices is impressive, it is still the humble computer that is most used. The PC accounts for two thirds of iPlayer viewing. The service had it’s busiest time, the week after Christmas, getting 29.7 million requests.

The most popular show over the festive period, and the most controversial, was the Top Gear India special. The show received a number of complaints from Indian diplomats, thanks to tasteless jokes about Indian food, transport, and illness. This did’nt stop it being the most popular show on the BBC iPlayer though, gettingf 1.7 million views.

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