News Broadcasting
CASBAA convention to address television industry issues
MUMBAI: Asian pay TV growth, video piracy, opportunities from China and the roll-out of 3G services will top the agenda when the regions leading broadcasters and satellite and cable operators meet this year at the annual Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) Convention in Hong Kong from 27-29 October.
“This is a great time for the regions cable and satellite broadcasters to come together, with massive opportunities opening up in China and from the genuine convergence of broadband and wireless technologies,” said CASBAA chairman Marcel Fenez.
“The China wireless market alone, with more than 300 million subscribers and a fast-growing mobile data segment, is one of the worlds great media and entertainment prospects. The CASBAA event is where the industry meets to understand the market dynamics and meet the decision-makers.”
The CASBAA Convention 2004 will hear from senior broadcast and studio executives, specialists on technology, and regulation and industry leaders from growing markets such as China, Korea and India.
Among the keynote addresses, Sony Pictures Television International president Michael Grindon and Star Group CEO Michelle Guthrie will speak on corporate strategies in the current industry environment, GE chief marketing officer Beth Comstock will give the global view on Asian advertising, and Harmonic Convergent Systems president Yaron Simler will examine the impact of digital video.
One panel session will reveal new estimates on the impact of pay-TV piracy in the region and the latest strategies in tackling theft of content, and another will be devoted to advertising and advertising agencies.
On Day two, the technology spotlight will be on wireless content and MMORPGs Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games.
The Day three fora will be devoted wholly to the China market, with sessions on wireless entertainment and business models for digital content. China International TV Corp president Li Jian will speak on the Chinese media groups global ambitions.
CASBAA CEO Simon Twiston Davies said this years line-up of speakers and topics goes well beyond the pay TVs industry traditional boundaries.
“With the focus on the key areas of advertising, technology and the China market, we examine some of the central issues of the day,” Twiston Davies said. “The conference is all about approaching the new convergence technologies as platforms for delivery of multi-channel content.”
He said the event has also extended into vertical markets such as wireless and multimedia content which are becoming increasingly important to Asian pay TV operators and content owners.
The CASBAA Convention 2004 will be held at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts from 27-29 October, presented by InvestHK and with CableTV and StarTV as official partners.
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.
