In truth, it doesn't matter how much money or talent Mr Allen throws at ITV 1, the advent of multichannel, digital TV means that his audience share is bound to fall anyway Today there is a legion of alternative channels to watch. To survive and prosper, ITV needs to find new sources of income to compensate for the loss of audience and advertising in its core ITV 1 franchise.Those who see this decline as indicative of poor investment and creativity have missed the point. ITV's chief executive, Charles Allen, was lucky to survive with his job.Since then Mr Allen has partially redeemed himself by persuading regulators first to agree to the creation of a single ITV, then a substantial cut in ITV franchise fees, and finally a big reduction in the company's public service broadcasting obligations.But he's yet to show that his talents range much beyond clever management of regulators. The last time ITV attempted to diversify away from its core franchise in commercial television - with the doomed ONdigital pay-TV platform - it ended up losing its shirt. That's been a huge boon to a growing minority, but those in the older industries have found themselves left behind, or excluded altogether from the economic renaissance going on all around them.ITV makes friends, but is it enough?Why doesn't ITV just stick to its knitting, many in the City have been asking in irritation on learning that the company is close to buying Friends Reunited. Yet those in low-skill jobs or manufacturing find themselves constantly undercut by immigrant labour, Chinese imports or the call centres of Bangalore.Britain's economic success has been built on its powerful position in these fast-growing service sectors. The real money is today earned in fast-growing service industry jobs, where the terms of trade have turned dramatically in Britain's favour.All of a sudden, the services of top traders, IT specialists, corporate lawyers, bankers and entertainers are in demand the world over, and their earnings have been rising much more strongly than growth in the economy as a whole.
Across Britain as a whole, median earnings are rising almost twice as fast in the top decile of workers as in the bottom. Indeed, the gap has been widening steadily in virtually every year since 1980, the only exceptions being in two years when the Government significantly increased the minimum wage.Living standards have been improving across nearly all income groups, but the most dramatic gains are at the top Again, Canary Wharf is instructive in explaining why. Wander little more than a stone's throw away into the Isle of Dogs, and you will also encounter some of the poorest elements of society anywhere in Britain. The division is instructive, for the main finding of the survey confirms the age-old truism that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Mean earnings in Poplar and Canning Town are an astonishing £101,322 a year The reason is obvious if you happen to work here. In the shape of Canary Wharf, this Labour constituency has what is very probably the highest concentration of investment bankers anywhere in the world Few of them actually live here, however. It's hard to credit if for a moment you turn your back on the gleaming towers of Canary Wharf and instead look east across the rundown wasteland of London's former docks, but according to the latest annual survey of earnings, I apparently work in the constituency with the highest rates of pay in Britain.
He said the company was continuing to focus on taking on only new investments if they believed they were good value, stressing that there was no pressure on employees to take on new deals if they could not find ones of sufficient calibre.The group's biggest profit from newly realised investments over the half came from its stake in Yellow Brick Road, the directory company, on which it made a profit of £42m.. Simon Ball, the finance director, admitted the group could have surplus cash of up to another £500m.Mr Yea played down the significance of the recent high level of realisations, saying this had been a result of the particularly buoyant merger and acquisition, and flotation markets over the past year. Last year, the group returned 40.7p to shareholders in a special dividend, while a £501m share buy-back programme is ongoing. The group's total return for the period rose 99.6 per cent to £447m, while profits from its realised investments increased 112 per cent to £189m. Philip Yea, the chief executive, hinted that the group was considering returning more capital to shareholders, admitting that the company was well below its optimum gearing targets after the recent large inflows of cash. 3i, the buyout to venture capital group, realised a record number of investments in the six months to the end of September, cashing in more than £1bn, helping to almost double shareholder returns.