BBC publishes Live +7 figures for May

The BBC has published its Live +7 audience data for May 2011 alongside the latest BBC iPlayer results.

The new figures for Live +7 reveal that Lord Sugar's current group of would-be apprentices are proving as popular as ever with more than 10 million people watching their every move, a figure only beaten by EastEnders which drew in more than 11 million viewers.

The new Live +7 information measures the total audience consuming content across all platforms, including live, recordings, narrative repeats, BBC iPlayer and HD for seven days after transmission. The system makes extensive use of BARB data and collates these ratings relating to a particular programme or episode alongside BBC iPlayer stats.

Highlights from the latest set of Live +7 figures for May show the following programmes increased their audience as follows:

• EastEnders added an extra 2.4 million viewers to its 03.05.11 episode giving it a total of 11.02 million viewers.
• The Apprentice increased its viewers from an overnight figure of 7.45 million to a Live +7 total of 10.15 million viewers for the episode broadcast on 25.05.11
• A total of 9.9 million viewers consumed the episode of Doctor Who broadcast on 14.05.11
• On BBC Three Russell Howard's Good News remained hugely popular with its audience tripling from an overnight figure of 1 million to a Live +7 total of 3.5 million.
• BBC Three's long-running comedy Two Pints Of Lager remains hugely popular with audiences increasing from 548,000 to 2.5 million when Live +7 is added in, an increase of 360%

BBC iPlayer received 159 million requests for TV and radio programmes in May, an increase of 18 million from the previous month. The Apprentice and Doctor Who were the most popular TV programmes while Radio 4's The Unbelievable Truth was the most popular Radio programme. Click here to see the full BBC iPlayer monthly performance pack. 

(Source : BBC press release)