Following the headlines in March's iPlayer stats pack that we published last month, I wanted to share some more details and insights about BBC Network Radio's interactive performance, as it was a record month for us. They say events drive reach, and plenty happened on the Radio websites in March that helps prove the adage. Reach to all BBC Radio sites hit 3.7 million average weekly unique browsers*. And if you factor in A&M's music and events websites, such as Music and Radio 1's Big Weekend, we recorded an overall reach for all BBC Audio and Music sites of 4.3 million UK average weekly unique browsers. That's an all-time high for us.

Online interest in Chris Moyles' marathon 52-hour broadcast for Comic Relief was a big part of this, pushing traffic to the Radio 1 site to a record 2.4m average weekly UK unique browsers. Live footage from the studio, carried on the Red Button, attracted 2.84 million viewers. And then there was Fearne Cotton. Her offer to appear in a swimsuit if the total raised by Moyles topped £2 million caused a surge of traffic that helped crash the Radio 1 site for a brief time. So, events do drive reach, and we've learnt some useful lessons there about capacity planning. On top of this, there have been about half a million clicks to view the section of the programme again via the website, and at Radio 1's official channel on YouTube.

We've had a superb month for live online listening. And although live listening via the internet still accounts for a relatively small amount of all digital consumption, we know people find it convenient to stream radio at their desks: compared to consumption via analogue platforms, online radio listening doesn't fall away so dramatically after radio's 'usual' breakfast time peak. In March, we recorded 29 million requests for live streams, 18% up on this time last year. Record performances across BBC network radio contributed to this, including 5 live sports extra, which nabbed 1.3m live stream requests for its World Cup Cricket coverage. Did I say... events drive reach?

We broke more records with our podcasts, delivering 12.3m successful downloads to UK subscribers in March. The Archers topped the list of our daily podcasts, with Scott Mills in second place. Interestingly, although Radio 4's landmark series A History of the World in 100 Objects ended last autumn, its podcasts remain popular enough to make it the 5th most popular daily podcast title in March. This is evidence of the demand there is for making podcasts available for longer and of the public value we can create by opening up the archive. First indications from the Desert Island Discs archive are also very encouraging. I've just had a first sight of April's podcast results - they're looking equally promising, including several hundred thousand successful downloads of our Royal Wedding 2011 podcast. This included a lot of interest from users in English-speaking countries around the world such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. It's another good example of how events drive reach.

A final, encouraging thing to note is the steady growth in reach to A&M's websites optimised for mobile devices. We've done a lot of work over the past 2 years to improve the usability of those sites, including automatically tweaking the pages to suit the device in question, and adding the ability to stream live radio for many devices. Devices are becoming easier to use too, and the performance since the start of this year suggests that the effort is now paying off: significant numbers of users now accessing A&M's content via mobile. March was a great month for this. There was growth across the board, with new sites for Radio 4's Desert Island Discs and Radio 1's Big Weekend contributing to the increase. And there was especially strong growth for Radio 1 and 1Xtra, where all mobile devices are now covered with key services and where fans used their phones to join in the fun with Moyles & Co for Red Nose Day.  Which all goes to show... well, you know what goes here.

* Unique Browsers: this is the term we use to describe a single computer accessing our websites. It's not the same as measuring 'people', and it's not a perfect proxy - but is the closest we have for now. One 'unique browser' is counted for every distinct 'cookie' which has visited a website within a given timeframe. In the BBC, this timeframe is one week. A cookie is a small piece of information that a server sends to your computer to identify that computer on its return. Whenever you clear your cookies, as some people regularly do, your computer is issued with a new cookie when you return to a website.

Alan Phillips is senior business manager, BBC Audio & Music Interactive

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chrismoyles/longestshow/

We all know what it feels like to be tired right? I mean really tired. We love watching people go the extra mile for a good cause and 52 hours is a long time to be awake. 'BBC Radio 1's Longest Show Ever with Chris Moyles and Comedy Dave' hit the mark for many people, including me. Radio 1 listeners raised £2.6 million. Incredible. It was, dare I say it, an emotional moment as we came off air, as it had so clearly captured and motivated our listeners in a way that we were simply not expecting. We could see it, in volume, written large on a gigantic screen in the studio; a flow of Facebook comments, SMS texts, tweets and a donations total wrapped around the BT Tower. It showed us how radio and the internet can work together so well and how far we'd come in terms of using different platforms.

I have no doubt that Chris and Dave would have had plenty of support without the internet or the red button but we have been building around different themes for some time. Trying out different ideas: from social media to empowering our audience with U CRTL Katy (Perry), visualising aspects of our output without damaging the passive radio experience and opening up our relationship with DJs as a compliment to listeners' social media noise. This felt like the coming of age for a new way to interact with listeners.

We simplified our approach: regular updates to Facebook, clear communications about our Twitter hashtag, a flow of visual material to catch up on (people seem particularly keen on seeing Fearne in a swimsuit) and an all-important live video window on the challenge Chris and Dave were undertaking. We had every door open to our audience and they used them.

It meant that you could stick with Chris and Dave, whether you were listening or not, dip in and out, see the impact of donations on a train or at work. Chris and Dave could see you and your support rolling in before their eyes.

It's a pretty humbling experience really when you witness such a positive wave of reaction. It was made all the more strong as Chris and Dave felt permanently propped up by listeners - trending No 1 in the world on Twitter is a great feeling for someone trying to stay awake for 52 hours. So our thanks go to Radio 1 listeners - we are all in awe.

By the way, I have yawned 6 times in remembering the marathon for this blog post and I actually got some sleep last week!

Ben Chapman is Interactive Editor at BBC Radio 1

• Relive the marathon broadcast on the Radio 1 web site.
• Get the latest news and make a donation on the Red Nose Day web site.

The Chris Moyles Show Tour happens to coincide with Radio 1's Access All Areas week - when we throw open the doors of Yalding House (figuratively for the masses and literally for a lucky few) for all to see.

There's an expectation that audiences want to watch as well as listen to outside broadcasts (OBs) of a certain scale nowadays. So, when this project landed in the inbox, we thought we'd try to find a way of making a bigger splash with the AAA element. We eventually decided to give the audience a higher level of access to Chris and the show than they've ever had before. As well as a live stream online, users will (for the first time) be able to watch the action live on their TVs (by pressing the red button). Additionally, for those viewers on the way to work, the stream will also be live on 16 BBC Big Screens across the UK.

We've tried to incorporate the visualisation element without affecting the 'sound' of the programme. Some features that are usually audio-only have been produced on video this time, so that the audience watching on TV has something to watch as well as hear - the radio programme will play out our audio during these features. On the flip-side, we have also prepared video items to play out over long segues in the radio programme to keep the TV audience engaged.

Technically - We're using 9 cameras in total, some robotic, some operated. OB facilities are from SiS, who we've worked with before and who have been very flexible in delivering what is a somewhat unconventional OB. We're sending the transmission by satellite to Satellite Operations at TV Centre where the red button video will play out and our partners Red Bee will handle our online stream from Broadcast Centre.

Please let us know what you think of the whole experience!

Adam Heyhurst is Series Producer for the Chris Moyles Show Tour

• The Chris Moyles Show tour is directed by Will Kinder. Executive Producer is Ben Chapman.
• Access All Areas week is under way now. Full details on the Radio 1 web site.
• The Chris Moyles Show tour is on the Radio 1 web site, on the red button and on BBC Big Screens around Britain. Details here. Chris was in Portsmouth this morning and will be in Newport, Derby, Darlington, Perth for the rest of the week. Tickets for all four Cities are sold out.
• The Chris Moyles Show is on Facebook and the team is on Twitter.
• The hashtag for Access All Areas is #R1AAA