Macchiavelli alive and well at the BBC?

I just read this piece of news from the BBC about broadcasting the world cup on broadband. Streamed, no less, live!
There's a low key reference to this on the BBC website too.

So what's going on here? Is this some foolhardy attempt to prove the viability of IPTV? They are just going to be chucking this stuff out there on the web, with seemingly little preparation or forethought.

Maybe they think there are only going to be a few thousand people who will view it online?

Oh, and it's apparently restricted to UK license payers, though no mention as to how that will be achieved.

Or perhaps there is a more sinister motive here. By flooding the UK network with attempts to view matches online, the quality and speed of other services will be impacted, thus forcing people to go back to watching the match on the old media of the TV.
Is it in fact a sophisticated DoS attack on UK ISPs?

I expect it will be switched off after the first 'unprecedented demand' and coverage will be limited to 4 minute highlight downloads. Unless they are doing multicast (?possible?) then it will be likely unwatchable anyway.

Also just wait for the telco responses of 'shows the need for IMS framework and guaranteed QoS on the web'.

If the BBC had announced that they had a deal with Akamai to do the above, then it might be believeable, but buried in the BBC worldcup website, I seriously doubt whether the delivery, uptake and international demand (where there's a will there's a way) have been realistically analysed.

We shall see, but it could be a highly damaging move on the part of the BBC.