The BBC's iPlayer costs £5.2m a year to run

"The BBC's hugely popular iPlayer catch-up service costs at least GBP5.2m (USD7.8m) a year to run in operational and development costs, according to the UK broadcaster. The figures, released by the BBC in response to a Freedom of Information request, reveal that GBP 5.7m (USD8.6m) was spent on pre-launch costs for the iPlayer and GBP4m (USD6m) on development costs over the past four years. Running costs for the service total GBP4m (USD6m) annually, meaning the iPlayer has so far cost approximately GBP22.5m (USD34m) since launch.
The GBP5.2m (USD7.8m) does not include costs paid to network provider Siemens for handling the 120m streams a month delivered by the player or other fees paid to contractors, such as Microsoft. There are also thought to be some other costs spread across other BBC budgets. However, the sum spent on ongoing development and running costs is still a small fraction of the state-owned broadcaster's total budget, and represents good value for money considering the site attracted approximately 5.9m users each week in February. Estimates suggest that around one-in-six UK citizens watches the iPlayer."
Spource: StrategyEye, 29th June 2010