News Broadcasting
BBC Sport to broadcast Super Bowl
MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC has announced that BBC Sport will broadcast the Super Bowl live, over the next two years, having signed an exclusive free-to-air deal with the NFL.
The two-year deal will also include free-to-air highlights of the NFL London game on 28 October 2007 between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants at Wembley Stadium, plus any other NFL London games that may be scheduled for next year.
Super Bowl XLII will be broadcast live from Arizona on 3 February 2008 and Super Bowl XLIII will be broadcast live from Tampa, Florida in 2009.
BBCSport’s Philip Bernie said, “The Super Bowl is one of the world’s great sporting events and we are delighted that, after many years of covering it on BBC Radio 5 Live, we are now also going to be showing it on BBC Television.
“The Super Bowl always attracts great interest and we are really looking forward to providing a new showcase for this huge occasion.”
NFL UK MD Alistair Kirkwood says, “We are thrilled to be announcing a partnership with the BBC. This represents a major landmark in the growth of our sport in the UK and will help us to establish the NFL as a significant part of the sporting landscape here. The BBC’s reputation in the presentation of televised sport is unrivalled and we are very excited about working closely with them.”
In February 2007, Super Bowl XLI reached an estimated worldwide audience of nearly one billion in more than 220 countries as the Indianapolis Colts overcame the Chicago Bears in Miami.
As well as being one of the biggest events in world sport, the Super Bowl is renowned for its spectacular entertainment line-up, featuring performances in recent years by the Rolling Stones, Sir Paul McCartney, Prince, U2, Sting and Beyonce Knowles.
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
