Doctor Who sets "most recorded programme ever" record

Data published by Kantar Media shows that Doctor Who: The Impossible Astronaut is the most recorded programme of all time.

Initial overnight figures indicated that the programme was watched 6.5 million viewers, however when official ratings were published by BARB, this rose to a colossal 8.9 million.

46% of the audience did not watch the programme "live" at 6.00pm on BBC One on Saturday 23rd April 2011.

4.11 million viewers 'time-shifted' their watching of the episode, either through VOSDAL ("viewing on same day as live") or during the following week.

Dalia Gereis, the Commercial Director for Kantar Media Audiences, commented: "With the continued growth of hard drive recording devices like Sky+, it’s no surprise that all the episodes of these top 10 recorded shows come from the last three years. Increasingly viewers are using their own ‘time travel’ abilities to watch TV shows when they want them – this particularly applies to dramas and ‘must see’ reality shows. Given that these figures do not include data from online catch up services like BBC iPlayer and ITVplayer, it is clear that judging a show’s performance just by looking at it’s overnight viewing figures is unlikely to give the full picture."

The BBC also recently dismissed the importance of overnight figures, and commented on the success of Doctor Who's viewing figures.

(Source: The Doctor Who News Page)