Hit Line Of Duty helped drive BBC’s iPlayer to record-breaking first half of 2021

LINE Of Duty helped drive the BBC’s iPlayer to a record-breaking first half of 2021.

The police drama, along with The Serpent and Time, were among the hit series which pushed total streams to 3.3 billion between January and June.

The figure was up by eight per cent on the same period in 2020 and 59 per cent up on 2019.

The first episode of the sixth series of Line Of Duty was watched 8,745,000 times, making it the most streamed programme of the six months.

But viewers also revisited previous series, with episodes from series one and two in the top ten most popular.

Opening episodes of serial killer tale The Serpent and prison drama Time were second and third most watched.

EastEnders is also enjoying its best year on iPlayer, with 140 million streams in the first six months.

The Euro 2020 final set a new live viewing iPlayer record with 5.8 million streams.