Originally the BBC owned it's TV production, but it's not the case now.
The TV production was hived off to private companies, who then license it to the BBC, so the BBC doesn't own lots of the content it (we, the UK public) paid for, they have licenses to it with varying terms.
So; while it should be the case, in fact UK citizens get the er.. "opportunity" to pay for all sorts of the content again later, after it comes off iplayer.
