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Osborne got Murdoch's approval for shabby licence fee deal
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According to a story in the Guardian (18 December, 2015), George Osborne met with News Corp representatives six times between the 7 May general election and the imposition of a shabby deal over the BBC licence fee in early July. The corporation would take on a bill of £700m to pay for free licences for the over-75s. In return, the Treasury agreed to allow an inflation-linked rise in the £145.50 licence fee. Two of Osborne's meetings were with Rupert Murdoch in June, apparently before he met the BBC's director general, Tony Hall, to discuss the deal. It would seem that Murdoch already controls the BBC's finances. All that's left is for News Corp to determine the content of its broadcasts.
The Guardian's story:
"George Osborne met Rupert Murdoch twice in June, days before the Treasury foisted a controversial funding deal on the BBC in which the broadcaster was told it would have to pay the £700m cost of funding TV licences for the over-75s.
"The chancellor also met senior News Corp executives and editors four more times after the general election on 7 May before informing the BBC about the proposed funding settlement officially on 3 July. It was publicly announced three days later.
"The records published by the Treasury do not give a precise date for the Murdoch meetings other than to say they were in June, and their purpose is described as “general discussion”.
"Details about the funding settlement first emerged in the Murdoch-owned Sunday Times on 5 July in an article headlined “Osborne hits BBC to pay welfare bill". It quoted senior government sources saying a deal was close following meetings over the previous week between Osborne, the BBC director general, Tony Hall, and representatives from the Departments for Work and Pensions and Culture, Media and Sport.
"As well as his meetings with Murdoch, the chancellor also had lunch with News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson on 31 May, and met the then Sun editor, David Dinsmore, the following month.
"Murdoch's News Corp owns the Sun, Times and Sunday Times through its subsidiary News UK.
“During the same period between the election and the funding deal, Osborne also met BBC executives twice, once with Hall and on another occasion with the head of news, James Harding.
“Murdoch’s name appears earlier in the list than Hall's, suggesting the chancellor met the News Corp mogul before sitting down with Hall to lay out his plans.
“The records also list a June meeting with the Sun, the Times and the Daily Mail, and another with the Sunday Times, although who represented the newspapers is not stated.
“The only other newspapers Osborne met between the election and the public announcement of the BBC funding deal were the Financial Times and the New York Times, according to the disclosure.
“Osborne is understood to have been the driving force behind the BBC settlement, which critics say should have been exposed to greater scrutiny from parliament and the public. It was instead announced as an agreed settlement on 6 July, with the BBC told it could increase the £145.50 licence fee by inflation if the broadcaster's scale and scope remained unchanged."
DATELINE: 19 December, 2015
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