YouTube saw a 3% rise in traffic to 17.4m unique users in May, nearly triple the BBC iPlayer’s traffic, which reported 6.6m, according to latest UKOM figures from Nielsen.

The data shows YouTube overtaking Microsoft and Amazon to become the seventh biggest site in the UK.

Channel 4’s on-demand service 4oD attracted 1.40m unique users, and ITV Player saw 1.32m. Sky Player and Demand Five saw 638,000 and 516,000 unique users respectively.

The UKOM figures show each person spent an average of 53.4 minutes watching videos on YouTube, while BBC iPlayer users spent an average of 12.3 minutes. The average time spent per person on 4oD during May was 15 minutes, nine minutes for ITV Player and 13 minutes for both Five and Sky Player.

Bruce Daisley, YouTube’s head of sales, said, “It just goes to show people aren’t always watching full-length episodes on catch-up players. We’ve been told over and over that clips don’t hold peoples’ attention, but a lot of people come to the site to watch a clip and end up watching a full programme.

“Companies should make more noise about UKOM’s figures. They’re good for the digital industry as a whole,” he added.