Years ago Murdoch was going to refer the licence fee to the European court
But he was "paid off" by the Beeb
( CanonCaliber I'll laugh if you laugh, Thu 10 Apr 2008, 9:10, archived)

Interesting, how many years ago?
James Murdoch, the chief executive of BSkyB ... went on to question the licence fee that funds the BBC. He called it a "tax on the population".
(_Felix suspicious character from prehistoric caucasus, Thu 10 Apr 2008, 9:18, archived)

It seems that Murdoch jnr has more guts than Murdoch snr
I referred to Ruport Murdoch and it would be about the time that Sky bought out British Satelite Broadcasting (late 1980's-early 1990's ?)
( CanonCaliber I'll laugh if you laugh, Thu 10 Apr 2008, 9:32, archived)