Network management Toolkit 
Story: BT wants BBC to pay for iPlayer
BT holding ransom demands.
So BT are seemlingly holding content companies to ransom - pay up or face sanctions (streaming throttling). Their accountants are up in arms - they used to depreciate the assets of telephone exchanges over 25-40 years. Now they are having to do the same over kit which is 3 years old - its bringing them out in a cold sweat - and all because of content providers such as the BBC / youtube.
Esimating demand for the internet is difficult enough, BT obviously got it wrong - badly wrong - they though copper would be sufficient. They have just spent a billions in 21CN (hoping to string out the massive investment in copper for a few more years) - its already looking like 'home highway 64kbps streams' did in comparison to ADSL-seven years ago when comparing ADSL to Fibre 100Mbps today. However you want to promote it (20Mbps ADSL2+) - it just doesn't cut it.
They really don't seem to get this Apple iphone world, riding the wave - costs money,you take risks. Being at the forefront is the difference between winning and failing-blending into the background with the other thousand or so chinese devices on the market. The incumbent/utility approach doesn't work - you need to be like Apple.
My take on it is BT is it sees the iplayer as the perfect 'bolt-on', they can control access, the BBC charge an upfront monthly fee and BT take their cut in collection of the revenue. Its a new model, but it would raise Billions and they want a slice of the cake for its collection, they want to rewrite the internet.
The key point here is by implementing this model isn't it destroying the internet as we know it?. A free resource of knowledge/information - its power is immense, more than any single company - if BT walked away - there would be a hundred companies to take its place to provide access- don't believe their tears, this seems to be all about licence fees, subsidies and trying not losing their monopoly.
There is certainly a case for the BBC to switch its main form on transmission to the internet, become in effect a National ISP. Providing enough 'core' bandwidth to every house for say 2 HD channel broadcasts 24 hours a day as part of the licence fee and any unused traffic could be sold back to the ISPs for use for other internet services. The licence fee in effect become part of your Broadband fee. The radio bandwidth of TV could be sold for billions to help pay for this switch over. I think this is where BT are heading, or trying to - maybe this is the real slice of cake they are looking for.
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