News Broadcasting
BBC hopes to launch channel in China
MUMBAI: Three years after it was given the unceremonious heave-ho for “infringing” state broadcasting rules, BBC is eyeing a return to China with the launch of its channel.
Representatives from BBC Worldwide, the corporation’s commercial arm, are to visit China this summer with plans for a television channel. The corporations’ focus is on international expansion plans as the commercial unit announced record profits of £55 million for 2004/05, a year on year increase of 50 per cent.
International expansion of both the channels and TV sales business is a crucial part of the corporation’s plans. BBC Worldwide chief executive and chief operating officer John Smith will head a team of between five and 10 senior Worldwide executives hoping to start discussions with several joint venture partners as well as the Chinese government in August, informs media reports.
The division, which operates international channels including BBC America, BBC Kids in Canada and the BBC Food channel in the Middle East and Africa, is keen to look at other territories. China is on the list of the countries where channel expansion is on the agenda, according to a media report.
A kids channel in the US has, however, been mentioned previously by Simth as one possibility. BBC Worldwide will be announcing the appointment of a new managing director of global channels some time soon.
According to a media report, Smith said that he was “pretty confident” of meeting his target to double profits from £37m last year to £74m next year.
But relations with the Chinese authorities have been at times strained over the corporation’s coverage of news events.
In 1994, Rupert Murdoch attempted to appease the Chinese government by removing BBC World from his Star satellite platform in the country, after dissatisfaction was expressed at BBC coverage of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
In 2002, the Chinese International Television Corporation temporarily ejected BBC World from the Sinosat 1 satellite service on the basis of unfavourable reports on the Falun Gong spiritual movement.
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.
