mhetterm - thanks for the suggestion of a possibility, but it wasn't so. This problem includes attempted access from one brand new pristine computer - no proxies ever configured. I haven't actually used BBC iPlayer.  By the way, I reside in Northern California - another poster was in Socal. I don't think it is anything but the AT&T U-verse site, because I have no trouble viewing clips on hulu and similar sites. I was literally sold the product on AT&T U-verse customer content only, and was originally told (two AT&T support sources) that the product was not actually available yet.