I see here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/broadband/info/multicast.shtml

that BBC multicast their output to certain ISP's

These are higher bit rate outputs (around 130kBpS) Real Audio Streams. Is there any chance of Slim Devices asking BBC to act as an ISP for the four BBC channels not available in other formats, and muticasting them from the Squeezenetwork server to the Slimserver users.

Alien BBC would of course still be required, but there would be marked improvement on the reception of the four main services.

??