BBC Trust to spend £300m of license fee to provide broadband for rural areas
The BBC Trust has announced that it will pay £150m a year for two years to the government's Department of Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (DCMS), to help provide broadband for rural areas.
The DCMS aims to provide superfast broadband to at least 90 per cent of premises in the UK.
Under the deal, which will see the BBC provide £12.5m a month for two years from 2015, the Trust will be entitled to a seat on the DCMS Broadband Portfolio Board to see how the money is being spent.
As well as broadband roll-out, the BBC will also take over the cost of the Foreign Office-funded World Service, BBC Monitoring and some costs of Welsh language TV channel S4C and local TV, according to Ariel.