Very nice when combined with the mandatory TV-licensing fees that the BBC gets. Might as well just cut out the middleman and give your money right to Adobe.

I don't know the details of the streaming algorithm, but if a key is only needed at the beginning, why not setup a web service that lets a real Flash client running in a VM handle starting the stream? A Free player would query this webservice (perhaps multiple times) to get the right keys, and then just stream manually.

Or, just download the TV show off Bittorrent or Usenet instead of getting it legally. (LOL @ anti-piracy measures. Have any ever worked?)