News Broadcasting
Samsung opens R&D center in Asia
MUMBAI: Samsung Electronics, which claims to be the number one producer of television sets by revenue, has opened a digital research center in Korea.
This is a new research facility dedicated to its digital media business. Samsung claims that the new facility is the largest R&D center in Asia and is expected to become a major R&D hub for development of digital TVs.
Samsung Electronics president digital media business Geesung Choi states, The Digital Research Center will play a key role in our drive to be the digital TV leader. This facility will turn out a steady stream of innovative printers, camcorders, monitors and notebook PCs that are on the cutting edge of the digital renaissance.
The center houses special-purpose facilities that will elevate the level of technological development and innovation in digital consumer electronics and IT products. These labs are built for functions such as picture and sound quality assessment, safety, reliability testing and environmental testing.
Ground was broken in September 2003 and construction was completed at the end of September 2005. The floor space is the equivalent to the area of 30 soccer fields. Currently, 5,200 employees work at the R&D Center and it will eventually accommodate 9,000 researchers.
Of the 4,100+ R&D personnel who are part of the Digital Media Business, around 1,500 hold post-graduate degrees. There are also more than 150 expatriate researchers from India, China, Japan, Russia, UK and the US.
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.
