News Broadcasting
Times Now tweaks its look, launches four news based shows
MUMBAI:Times Now is giving a double boost to news on television by launching four new daily news based shows. The new shows; News Now Morning, Business Buzz, Live Report and The Game conform to the new look the 24-hour English general news channel has donned.
With the introduction of four new shows, the channel has evolved a new look and feel by providing more visual space. The channel, which presently runs three tickers, will reduce it to two with the revamp. The channel will showcase its anchors in a white-line bordered frame. According to Times Now CEO Sunil Lulla, “The four new shows add to the quality of information our viewers need.”
Starting 17 July, the channel has kicked off the day with a new morning breakfast show — News Now Morning. Lulla says that for a Times Now viewer, the morning news bulletin, which will be aired at 6 am, is the best way of getting ready to face the new day.
The channel maintains its agenda is to keep redefining the concept of news for their urbanite target audience. Business Buzz, which will air from 9:30 am to 12 noon and again from 3 pm to 4 pm, is aimed at giving viewers a complete picture of the day’s business news and markets. The channel will also leverage content from sister print publication and leading financial paper The Economic Times as well the global news service Reuters.
At 12 noon there is Live Report, where the channel will go live for half an hour to the story of the moment. The show’s tagline is pure news at noon.
At 7:30 pm is The Game, which as the name implies is primarily for sports fans. The Game will have cricket journalists Faisal Sharif and Dinesh Chopra pitching to provide inside stories and scoops on the country’s most popular sport.
Talking about the programming of the new shows, Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami says, “The new look and the new shows will make us pacier and even more newsy. We’ve already been acknowledged as number one in coverage of big stories. Now, we’ll also have the widest range of shows aimed at just one purpose, putting out much more news on our channel and broadcasting the news with energy and conviction, since the viewers are tired of bland or preachy news channels.”
Concludes Lulla, “In the coming weeks, the channel is likely to launch a brand campaign and we will continue to sharpen the channel as we go long.”
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.
