Analysis: ISPs including Tiscali and Carphone Warehouse reportedly want the BBC to help pay for bandwidth incurred by usage of its iPlayer. But what’s the real power play?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/14/bbc_iplayer_isp_analysis/Also see:
P2P: Boon, Boondoggle, or Bandwidth Hog?
Depending on whom you ask, peer-to-peer (P2P) services may be the best thing that ever happened to the Internet or a diabolical arbitrage scheme which will ruin all ISPs and bring an end to the Internet as we think we know it. Some famous P2P services include ICQ, Skype, Napster, and BitTorrent. Currently a new P2P service called iPlayer from BBC is causing some consternation and eliciting some threatening growls from British ISPs.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/070815_p2p_boon_boondoggle_bandwidth/