Quality Variation (re-formatted!)

[bat guano]

>  As far as a regular iPlayer user is concerned, who streams the audio 
> content from the iplayer interface,
> he has no clue whatsoever that the encoding team messed up.

You're correct there.
The 'listen again' programmes are intended to be played in a browser.
A normal user wouldn't know anything about the bitrates unless...

"Hello BBC iPlayer people, I just listened to the Vivaldi programmes with my PC connected to a Bang & Olufsen stereo.
Tuesday's show was great but Wednesday's sounded crappy...
Disgusted of Tunbridge Welles"
;-)