News Broadcasting
BBC triumphs at Royal Television Society Journalism awards
MUMBAI: UK pubcaster BBC News had another win at this year’s Royal Television Society Journalism awards in the UK.
Highlights included BBC News 24 winning the award for news channel of the year and programme of the year for Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs.
And, both home and international current affairs prizes went to BBC programmes for Detention Undercover – The Real Story and Children of Beslan respectively. BBC News director Helen Boaden said, “News 24 has come of age with this award and will go from strength to strength. BBC Current Affairs did outstandingly well – gaining all the nominations in both domestic and foreign award categories. Our winners were outstanding films which demonstrated courage and flair as well as brilliant story telling.”
The camera operator of the year was won by Nik Millard of the BBC Ten O’Clock News. The Nations and Regions News Coverage award went to BBC Look North for their coverage of the Joanne Nelson murder case.
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.
