Has Murdoch saved the licence fee?

Just a thought - but has Jeremy Hunt's decision over News International and BSkyB effectively secured the future of the BBC and the TV licence?

We know that if News Corp's bid is successful - and there are still bridges to cross - it will create a broadcasting behemoth. One that, without effective competition, could easily become something that walks and talks like a virtual broadcasting monopoly. 

Which is why this appears quite interesting - it's from a Broadcast magazine interview with Jeremy Hunt, republished on his own website:

"As Conservatives we are absolutely committed to plurality of provision of public service broadcasting." 

Now, let's think about that. This was intended as a comment on funding public service broadcasting, including - above all - the BBC. But it can equally apply more broadly to the funding models for all broadcasting in the UK. Of which we have three: subscription + ads (Sky and other digital/satellite broadcasters), ads alone (ITV) and the licence fee (BBC).

Plurality in the provision of public service broadcasting is no more than a subset of plurality in the provision of all broadcasting. And that triangle of funding models supporting a triangle of giants is one clear way of ensuring plurality.

There has to be an argument - given more point today - that you tamper at your peril with these multi-billion pound enterprises locking one another into a guarantee of plurality. 

Would breaking up the BBC or slicing its income further, or forcing it to change funding models, or fragmenting the market to produce minnows enhance or reduce that plurality? 

As Jeremy Hunt said in January:

"The important thing is not whether a particular owner owns another TV channel but to make sure you have a variety of owners with a variety of TV channels so that no one owner has a dominant position both commercially and politically." 

And surely the best way to ensure no single owner has that dominant position is to ensure that a broadcaster with millions of owners - the BBC - stays in the game with a budget and market position to match that of News Corporation.