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There's a press release on the BBC Press Office website that has some numbers for iPlayer over the last year that you might be interested in. Some of the release's headline statements include:

• BBC iPlayer celebrates second birthday with record numbers reaching 88.2 million requests
• Top Gear most watched programme of the year on BBC iPlayer
• Figures reveal popularity of BBC shows by device
• New data suggests that people take BBC iPlayer to bed

Paul Murphy is the Editor of the Internet blog.

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I wanted to point out the BBC Trust's press release regarding its provisional approval for Project Canvas - although it was reported in the press yesterday it was actually published today. There are some interesting things to note in the release that highlight market impact and public value around Project Canvas but it's worth reading the Provisional conclusions and public consultation document in full.

• There's a period of consultation on the provisional conclusions that closes on 2 February 2010, after which the Trust will reach its final decision.
• Read the BBC Trust press release: BBC Trust gives provisional approval to Project Canvas
• Download the PDF: Provisional conclusions and public consultation, PDF

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This morning the BBC Trust published its findings in relation to a complaint about the BBC's iPlayer syndication policy. As the executive in charge of bringing the service to TV platforms, I wanted to give you a bit of background to this.

As we've said before, we aim to make the BBC iPlayer available to as wide an audience as is technically possible and economically feasible. At launch, almost two years ago now, the service was only a Windows-based product on the web.

But since then, we've now syndicated the BBC iPlayer to no fewer than 25 different devices and platforms. On TV, we have made BBC iPlayer available to the audience of Virgin Media, PS3, Nintendo Wii, Cello's iViewer last week, and (in Beta) on Freesat.

This process will accelerate in the New Year, with more and more internet-connected TV devices entering what is a fragmented market with varying standards. Instead of making a bespoke product for each device, we have chosen a way that we believe represents the best value to licence fee payers - we will make available a set of standard products to all; making investment in bespoke products only where high audience reach can be achieved.

Back in March, a company called IP Vision made a formal complaint to the BBC after we declined support for a product they were developing for their Fetch TV box. After the BBC Executive's Fair Trading Complaints Panel rejected the complaint in May, IP Vision appealed to the BBC Trust, which published its findings and conclusions today.

The Trust has rejected the main substantive points of the appeal, but, in terms of process, we do note that they have ruled that we should have assessed the competitive impact of our decision.

We also note the Trust's view that October's clarification of our syndication guidelines represented a change in policy that should have been ratified by the Trust. The clarification will now be considered as part of the Trust's review of the BBC's on-demand syndication policy, which begins in January 2010. We will rely on our pre-existing policy until the Trust complete their review.

It has been a great year for our audience as they access BBC iPlayer on multiple platforms - on PCs, mobile and TV. I look forward to building on this success next year with more platforms and devices.

Rahul Chakkara is Controller, TV Platforms, BBC FM&T.

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