Gary Lineker has dominated the headlines over the last week, perhaps nowhere more so than on the BBC itself.
Ipsos iris data shows that on Thursday 9th March, the day before Lineker was stood down from presenting duties on Match of the Day, more time was spent on the BBC News app than any other day in 2023. The total minutes spent on the app was up +74% (to 130m minutes) compared to the daily average for the year so far: that’s the equivalent of 38,000 additional days browsing – or 613,000 football matches, not counting extra time. It also represents the most time spent on the app since the death of Queen Elizabeth II last September.
UKOM-endorsed Ipsos iris data allows you to go behind the headlines and not just identify trends, but better understand the audiences driving them. In this case we can see the increase in total time spent on the app was driven most strongly by younger users, with those aged 15-34 accounting for +125% more time spent on BBC News versus the rest of the year, compared to a +47% increase for users aged 35-54, and +70% for over 55s.
Gary Lineker
