According the BBC's 2008-2009 annual report, the corporation earned a massive 3.3 billion pounds from licence fees, with another 719 million pounds coming from its commercial business, 283 million pounds from government bonds and 42 million pounds from other activities such as content provision to overseas broadcasters.

BBC Chairman Michael Lyon said that the licence fee system meant that it 'has no choice but to serve all audiences, but that doesn't mean that it can or should seek to squeeze out other providers'.

'We have to be careful not to reduce the whole of broadcasting to some simple economic transactions. The BBC's public purposes stress the importance of the well-tested principles of educating and informing and an impartial contribution to debate.'

Murdoch contrasted the 'unhappy' British media industry with 'Germany's regulatory professionalism, India's growth opportunities, France's robust defence of intellectual property'.