News Broadcasting
Fox and Burger King bring hit shows to MySpace.com
MUMBAI: News Corporation’s Fox Entertainment Group and Burger King Holdings, Inc. have teamed to offer hit Fox programming free of charge to the more than 75 million members of MySpace.com.
MySpace.com is Fox Interactive Media’s popular online social networking site. This promotion marks the first time that network TV content is being made available on a series basis through MySpace, as well as MySpace’s entry into the ecommerce arena.
The promotion launches 22 May, in conjunction with the season finale of the record-breaking fifth season of 24. MySpace users will be able to download-to-own two episodes of the Fox drama at no cost from a special ‘Have It Your Way’ page provided by Burger King. Both the very first episode from 24’s first season and the first episode of the current season will be available. Also offered at launch will be an episode of Speed’s Pinks and Fuel TV’s FirstHand.
In addition, MySpace will create a social network around 24, where users can interact with each other, create user generated content and download the entire first and fifth seasons of the top-rated drama for $1.99 per episode.
“This is truly the perfect marriage of compelling content, an extremely creative advertising partner and the Internet’s leading site for young adults. It really exemplifies our overarching strategy of doing deals that make sense organically, and we have high hopes that MySpace users will find it an attractive offering,” said Fox Entertainment Group president digital media Peter Levinsohn.
“It’s the ultimate ‘Have It Your Way’ experience. We’re giving consumers what they want with the choice of free shows – wherever and whenever they want to watch them – and the ability to talk about those shows in the social networking environment of MySpace,” said Burger King Holdings senior director media Gillian Smith.
“MySpace is the largest video site on the web with more video uploaded every day than any other site on the Internet. Our members are avid fans of these shows and are consuming video at a rapid pace, making MySpace the perfect distribution channel for programmers looking to innovate new models,” said Fox Interactive Media president Ross Levinsohn.
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.
