The Seven Network has added profit supremacy to its
gathering ratings dominance over the Nine Network, reportsThe Australian.

And if executive chairman Kerry Stokes had decided not to
sue Foxtel, News Ltd, Optus and 17 others over the collapse of C7, Seven’s
earnings results would have been even better, says Neil Shoebridge in the Financial Review (not online).

Meanwhile, the market has, as it should, started to give
Seven boss David Leckie and his team the credit they deserve for turning around
what for so many years was a chronic underperformer, says Elizabeth Knight in The SMH.

One of his latest strategies is cutting one of Seven’s main
overseas programming deals to help pay for the AFL
broadcast rights and boost its profitability, says Lisa Murray in The SMH.

In The Oz,
Bryan Frith is reading between the lines – “Queensland Gas Co is headed for a
declaration of unacceptable circumstances in relation to its takeover bid for
Sydney Gas (SGL).”

And read all about Fortescue Metals CFO Chris Catlow’s
“commercially inexcusable” outburst, made in defence of boss, Andrew Forrest.

Telstra’s appeal to the government that the ACCC’s
pricing framework for access to its local loop is unfair is floundering, says
Stephen Bartholomeusz in The Smage,
as is its campaign to safeharbour its proposed new fibre-to-the-node broadband
network. And in the Fin‘s
Chanticleer, John Durie says it’s time for Coles chief John Fletcher to restore
momentum to the retailer’s troubled food and liquor operations.

In other news, former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow weeps and tells
the court he routinely inflated earnings, hid losses and deceived investors
with the blessing of his boss, Jeffrey Skilling…
He also says he was “extremely greedy” and lost his moral compass…
A key House panel votes overwhelmingly to block a Dubai company‘s access to several major
US seaports, setting the course for a major legislative collision.

On Wall Street, US
stocks ended mixed Wednesday after investors concerned about inflation and rising
interest rates were offered some respite. The Dow Jones rose 25.05 points to
11,005.74.