News Broadcasting
NDTV posts net loss of Rs 65 million in Q2
MUMBAI: Prannoy Roy-promoted NDTV Ltd has reported a net loss of Rs 65 million in the quarter ended 30 September 2005, slipping into the red as expenses on personnel surged. In the corresponding period last fiscal, the company had earned a net profit of Rs 28 million.
Revenues, however, rose 18 per cent to Rs 430 million. The net loss was also attributed to the jump in expenses on account of launch of business channel NDTV profit. The company believes the gestation period for the new channel, which normally takes at least a year, will be much shorter and there are positive signs of revenue pick up in the last few weeks.
NDTV expects revenues in the second half of the financial year to grow by at least 30-35 per cent. The compay recently concluded a deal with Malaysia’s Astro Broadcast Corp to form a joint venture where it woud hold 20 per cent.
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.
