The BBC's charter runs out at the end of next year, while the licence fee settlement is due to expire in 2017.The current licence fee settlement was based on a dodgy deal done behind closed doors which saw the licence fee frozen and additional responsibilities such as the fantastic BBC World Service, S4C, BBC Monitoring and the roll-out of fast broadband heaped on the corporation at a cost of £340m.During this period the BBC will have made £1.5 billion in annual savings. This has been made on the back of year-on-year cuts for the past decade which have damaged grassroots programming and journalism.The BBC World Service has shut more than a dozen local language services.The BBC, Europe's biggest provider of media and creative skills, as had its training budget reduced by 20 per cent. Additional money - up to £25m - from the licence fee has been diverted into propping up the failed Local Television initiative.On top of this, director-general, Tony Hall, has proposed plans to hive off BBC in-house TV production into a separate commercial subsidiary which would make programmes for the corporation and other broadcasters. This would need changes to the charter.

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