"The Guardian" has picked this story up and here is their view.

"According to a chapter by former Financial Times journalist Ray Snoddy in The BBC Today: Future Uncertain, Snoddy says in the days after informing the BBC it would have to take on the free licences, Whittingdale offered to shave £50m off the BBC’s responsibility for funding broadband rollout.

However, the corporation’s leadership felt the deal still left it without any guarantee it would be able to afford to maintain the services.

It was only after the BBC said it would tell the public which services it would have to cut that the Treasury offered a package of mitigating measures including a commitment to raise the licence fee in line with the consumer price index."