ISPs spend less money transmitting the video, and users also use less data, which could save them money, he said. Some ISPs had called for the BBC to compensate them as a result of widespread use of the iPlayer.

Rose said YouTube remains more popular than the iPlayer, and there's high demand for video across the Web. That demand is the cause of the "short-term pain between a network built for today and market opportunities that will be there tomorrow." Network providers will catch up, he said.

The BBC is also grappling with DRM (digital rights management) issues. The broadcaster buys some programs from other networks, many of which are still nervous about piracy and want to mandate a specific DRM technology. Usually, that's been Microsoft's Windows Media system. The BBC also uses it to ensure its programs don't end up on file-sharing networks, although Windows Media has been hacked before.

But the BBC encodes video into some 20 different formats for PCs and mobile devices, some of which are not compatible with certain DRM systems. The BBC has a server farm with more than 50 rack-mount PCs running quad-core Intel Xeon processors to encode hundreds of hours of programming a week.

IPlayer clients will soon be available for an upcoming Sony Walkman product, a Philips Gogear device and Nokia's N96 phone, Rose said.

"You can't mandate a particular technology because it's just not possible across the platforms we cover," Rose said. "Really the goal going forward is to change the relationship with content owners."

That goal to ensure content isn't easily pirated, but gives the BBC the leverage to make the decision on what DRM to use. Piracy will always exist, but "my job is to make it so easy to use legally that you wouldn't bother hacking it," Rose said.

Flash versions of a program can't be saved. With the iPlayer P-to-P client, a downloaded program will stay on a PC for 30 days before it's unplayable. Once someone starts watching a program, it will stay on a PC for seven days.

In June, the BBC introduced iPlayer 2.0, a Web site redesigned to make it easier for people to find content. It introduced a list of the top 10 programs, as well as remembers a user's last watched programs in order to show new episodes when someone goes to the iPlayer site again. It also streams BBC radio programs.

But much more is on the way. Soon, the iPlayer will automatically detect a PC's broadband speed and serve up either higher or lower bitrate streams to ensure the smoothest viewing, Rose said.