News Broadcasting
NRK debuts live video-phone reporting on TV
MUMBAI: Can mobile phones be used to transmit video images live and be broadcast on to TV? That is what the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) did when it covered the Vasaloppet ski race on Sunday.
NRK reporter Christian Grotnes who took part in the event was equipped with a 3G phone and commented on his own video images six times during the race. It was broadcast on NRK2. And for the the first time, a video was being transmitted live from a mobile phone and broadcast to TV.
“We decided to test this in order to create a more dynamic broadcast. By using a reporter who was also a competitor, we managed to give the viewers a rather unusual perspective on a ski race,” says NRK Sports editor Oyvind Lund. He does not rule out to use the technology again in the future.
Adds Gunnar Garfor, director of mobile services in NRK’s division of developments: “This enables us to report breaking news live on TV at an earlier stage and keep it going until our normal broadcasting equipment is in place. Having this possibility makes us more flexible in various situations.”
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.
