BBC and ISP's clash

A story carried by the BBC new website :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7336940.stm

ISP's are suggesting the BBC should pay for the extra bandwidth required because of it's iPlayer on demand service. What a load of crock! For a start, what about all the other high bandwidth applications, 4OD as an example and all the legal movie download sites (iTunes?), or even youtube? You might say that consumers are supporting the ISP's by charging for the service but all these providers give a vast amount of free content. For a lot of people, watching online TV is a major part of what they do on the internet. The ISP's are effectively asking the tax payer to pay for their short sightedness. For years, they have all been competing for people to sign up to their service, often cutting the cost of the service to virtually nothing just to win you over. Did they not expect the web to develop to the point where many content providers would supply video and audio on demand? Why target the BBC? If ISP's are in the business of providing the mechanism for content delivery, like rail services, Electricity or Water suppliers, they should foot the bill out of their profits for the enhancement of the service they offer, not the taxpayer. If that means the silly deals many people get have to stop, then so be it. If a service is worth it, people will pay. The many ISP's out there can then all compete on a level playing field and they can stop penalising content providers (and targetting the BBC in particular) for trying to provide people with what they want. Get your act together dopey....