[Margaret Pilkington]

The BBC is owned by the public. It has a royal Charter and this runs until 2026...when it is due to be renewed.
The BBC spends vast sums of money on slaries of so called 'stars'...the likes of Chris Evans and Gary Lineker...their combined salaries amount to something like 3.5 million pounds.
The BBC gets 3.7billion pounds from licence fees(they call it a fee, but in truth it is a tax).
It spent 1billion pounds on refurbishing the London HQ.
87 million went on a new set for Eastenders.
34 million on taxi transport.Bosses at the Beeb carved up 17million pound in salaries.
setting up a base at Salford cost another 224 million pounds.

so the question should be 'Shouldn't they cut their coat according to the cloth?'

George Osborne should never have been allowed to hand over the responsibility for the service to the BBC....but that said, the BBC PROMISED that if it were allowed to raise the licence fees in the budget, the over 75's would continue to get their free licences.
It was also a promise that was reiterated in the last Tory party manifesto.
So neither politicians, nor the BBC come out of this with any kind of integrity.