The BBC has taken the odd decision to introduce its controversial iPlayer Internet TV (IPTV) service on Christmas Day, when fewer support staff will be around to help resolve any initial problems.

iPlayer has also come in for stiff criticism from several of the countries larger ISP's, such as Tiscali, which have raised concerns about rising bandwidth demands emanating from the BBC’s use of P2P (File Sharing) technology.

Typically some of these issues have yet to be resolved and opposing providers may be wishing they had more time to adapt, although it remains to be seen how popular iPlayer will actually become. Meanwhile most of us will probably be gobbling up a hefty Christmas lunch only to sleep it off in the afternoon, cunningly managing to avoid annual repeats of ‘The Great Escape’.