News Broadcasting
BBC Worldwide signs deal with Australia’s Seven Network
MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide Australasia has concluded a new deal with the Seven Network in Australia to license Michael Palin’s new travel series Palin’s New Europe. In addition, a raft of drama and factual programming has been acquired by broadcasters in New Zealand, through agreements signed in the run up to MIPCOM. Palin’s New Europe which will air on BBC One in the UK next year, follows the ex-Python as he explores 21 countries such as Bosnia, Albania, Moldova and Macedonia. BBC Worldwide Australasia’s sales manager Amber Knight says, “Michael Palin has that rare combination of integrity, wit and bravery which makes all his programs such hits. We are very excited to be bringing this program to Seven.” Seven Network’s director of programming and production Tim Worner says, “Australians are renowned travellers – as a youngster it is a virtual rite of passage and you always seem to bump into fellow Australians in the most far flung locations. Michael Palin captures that spirit in his very own way and we at Seven look forward to being able to have him take Australian audiences to places they have never been before. “Palin is the pre-eminent television travel communicator of his time – in his company you do not just see; you taste, you smell, you experience. And, above all, he makes it fun – that’s why we’re proud he’s coming to Seven.” A package of returning series has been licensed to New Zealand’s TVNZ including key titles from Kudos productions such as Hustle Series 4, and Life on Mars Series 2. TV One has taken series two of Clerkenwell Films’ Afterlife, as well as Hotel Babylon (Carnival Films), Waterloo Road (Shed Productions) and Bodies (Hat Trick Productions).
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.
