News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch

News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch says he may sue the BBC for "stealing" content from his newspapers when his media group launches its new paid content strategy.

Murdoch told Sky News Australia's political editor David Speers that his newspapers have better content than the BBC. “And anyway, if you look at them, most of their stuff is stolen from the newspapers now, and we’ll be suing them for copyright.

“They will have to spend a lot more money on a lot more reporters to cover the world when they can’t steal from newspapers.”

However, he added that he didn’t think it would be necessary to go to court.

“They know the law. They will adapt.”

Murdoch said it was a "scandal" that everyone with a TV was "compelled" to pay a licence fee.

He said although the BBC did not charge for its own online content, it was the taxpayer who was ultimately paying for it.

“I think public broadcasting should be of the highest quality providing programmes and services where commercial broadcasting can’t afford to; where there is a hole. I think that’s fine. I don’t mind some taxpayer support for that,” he said.

Last August, Murdoch's son James, who heads News Corp. in Europe and Asia, called for major changes in the way UK broadcasting is run and regulated and strongly criticised the BBC in his MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. Watch it here in full.

The 78-year old media magnate also set his sights on Google.

He suggested the company's online newspaper pages will be invisible to Google users when it launches its new paid content strategy.

He said that readers who randomly reach a page via an internet search hold little value to advertisers.

Murdoch also criticised other sites like Microsoft and Ask.com for also taking a free ride on its content - - "the people who just simply pick up everything and run with it - - steal our stories ... without payment," he said.

Murdoch video