"you should have used the Thumbs Up icon, surely?"

Truth be told, I'm not much of a fan of El Reg's premoticon system.

"I believe the MPEG4 option would have introduced problems with kit compatibility, and I think some degree of commonality of approach to the transcoding pipeline was sought (avoiding too many simultaneous transcodes), in the knowledge that the same content would likely be offered via cable IPTV options in the near future."

Absolute horseshit. You'll never guess what industry I work in and what I do on a daily basis. Have a try.

"Of course, if you shout and swear enough, I'm sure the BBC will spend another £4.5M knocking up another option to suit you."

Can you shout in plain text? As for swearing, I love it, don't take it away from me.

"And who said the boffins were "hated"?"

You certainly demeaned them, as is usual practice i most industries.

"Yet another invented piece of the story it seems."

OK, let's review the plot one more time, then, just to be sure:

1. BBC establishes need/desire to deliver programmes via internet platform.

2. Commercial interests get wind of this, attach suckers to host.

3. Obvious solutions, both standards based and in-house, sidelined in favour of technically inferior, corrupting, proprietary system based on off-the-shelf malware.

4. Money drain enormous, inexplicable, frightening, noticed.

5. Justification for money drain begins - claims of complex in-house development (lie) touted, no need to look behind curtain as it's all so very technical.

6. During comically lengthy gestation, YouTube comes to prominence, Real and WMV streaming continues as per usual at bbc.co.uk.

7. Beta launched, bewildered howls of protest issue forth from the CLIENTS.

8. Hasty, Flash-streamed back-tracking begins.

9. CLIENTS look at the bill, look at the Flash streams and start to get REALLY FUCKING ANGRY.