News Broadcasting
Report emphasises role of P2P Networks in video distribution
MUMBAI: Peer2Peer (P2P) Networks mark a radical shift in the architecture and availability of broadcast video assets. It is also severely reducing competitive entry barriers for video distribution.
This is one of the key findings in Breakthroo’s report- Broadcast TV and Broadband Video: Collision and Disruption. The UK based Breakthroo helps brands better identify and create digital products and services, assess opportunities and undertake bespoke research, in order to find new business growth.
The report examines the collision between broadcast TV and broadband video. The report makes sense of: what new – and potentially disruptive – innovations are at play for scheduling or distributing video; what it means for the existing value net structure and incumbents, how the competitive pressures are increasing; and what the shifting of time, place and media (via P2P) trends mean.
The report notes that by using P2P networks, both video creators/producers (that create and fund content) and content packagers (that commission and aggregate it) can reach and sell to end users directly. The former disintermediates the entire value web, while the later disintermediates traditional distributors.
However, instead of P2P being framed as an alternative to broadcast TV, its more likely an augmentation, an additional route to market; albeit, one with the potential to disrupt a fragmenting TV viewing constituency. It will enable firms and amateurs alike to become asset creators/producers/distributors.
An increasing array of TV platforms and end devices affords users real diversity in how they choose to consume and/or create video.
The current state of broadband video: High-level convergence of media, telecoms and datacoms, where any TV/video service can be sent across any network (fixed/cellular/wireless), is fragmenting the distribution market. It is also increasing competition and speeding commoditisation.
Channel packagers have additional distribution options, creators can bypass packagers and distributors, and users have more video access and control (push, pull, P2P). Intelligent edge devices enable user generated video, and faster than real-time file distribution via efficient, swarming P2P networks; further augmenting millions of concurrent P2P users. Residential gateways that control data access and services, and multi-purpose flat-panel displays, are the eye of the home environment storm between multiple markets.
Meanwhile the broadcast value net will continue to grow. It will feature far more segments and increased complexity, from iTV to IPTV, from channel packagers to distributors. New entrants and substitutes will threaten incumbent business models and put aggressive pressure on margins, and innovative new products they diffuse into markets will change technology performance dimensions and customer buying criteria.
Firms will need to embrace new offerings in order to find new growth and remain competitive. They will have to explore ever more niche content demands, i.e. look to the margins, to aggregate higher volume, more personal, smaller transactions.
P2P will enable new firms to threaten distributors which fail to compete on content granularity, volume of sources, and cost. The ability to media shift may be one characteristic customers use in adopting P2P-based video services. New P2P video distributors will force the broadcast value net structure to expand, and increasing competition margin pressure.
As sustaining innovations,digital video recording systems will reside within incumbent services or as augmented features of STBs, online video on demand providers, etc. Commoditisation of basic features will be accelerated by multiple, competing value players rushing to diffuse them. This will force some players towards evolved features, premium markets, and modularisation of previously interdependent interfaces within the value net.
Freeing users from the TV/home constraint will be achieved with place shifting solutions via streams, downloads and device transfers. Adoption characteristics will differ to iTunes/iPod, as video place shifting requires a users total attention, most appropriate for nomadic scenarios; of which a manifestation may be a preference for short bite size video clips. End-to-end systems with rich content libraries may prove difficult to negotiate and offer.
Media shifting and P2P blur the professional/amateur divide, making possible point-to-point distribution of video content and user-generated videos. In combination with the explosive popularity of blogging, syndication, and long tail economic models, will create a virtuous circle. Video professionals and niche markets now have a viable distribution alternative to broadcast, providing them with a direct sales route and zero costs
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.
