100 million views since 4oD began

With all the exposure about the popularity of the BBC iPlayer service and one side saying the bandwidth it uses has an insignificant effect and the other sounding warning notes, it is easy to overlook that Channel 4 has its own streaming and download service 4oD.

4oD launched way back in January 2006 and has had some 100 million views and downloads since then according to DigitalSpy.co.uk. In the first few weeks of 2008 up until February 25th, some six million streams or downloads occurred which is applicable to a 110% growth in usage. 4oD is additionally available via Virgin Media cable TV, Tiscali TV and BT Vision where in effect it has some 2.3 million users versus the 1 million PC based users.

It is completely possible that the increase in usage has arisen as a result of the amount of promotion the BBC iPlayer has received on BBC channels, leading to people looking for a comparable service on the other mainstream channels.