BBCi reaches 11m per week

The BBCi red button service was used by 11m adults each week in 2007/8, up from 10.2m in the previous year, according to the corporation's annual report.

The figure rose in line with digital TV uptake - representing 30% of digital viewers in both years.

A particular hit was last year's Wimbledon, which brought "well over 3m on digital satellite alone" to BBCi with live coverage of different courts and highlights.

The service also provided multiple feeds of different acts for Glastonbury Festival, which drew 2.6m viewers, and about 1.5m used interactive content related to Celebrity Fame Academy and the Eurovision Song Contest.

The BBC's report for 2007/8 reiterated its intention to retain a permanent sports presence on the red button service. "A priority for us is to evolve from an event-based service to an aggregated service for audiences of interactive sport that offers audiences a coherent one-stop-shop sports offering. This is what the fans say they want."

However, the corporation's future media and technology division said the "big story" of the year was the iPlayer video on demand service. "Viewers and listeners are benefiting from a seismic power shift in their favour in the media landscape," said the report.

Ashley Highfield, the outgoing director of future media and technology, said: "This has been one of the most technologically influential years in media ever - and the BBC has been leading from the front. BBC iPlayer is heralding a quantum change in how and when we all - from the Radio 3 aficionado to the EastEnders groupie - can choose to take our ‘radio’ and our ‘telly’."