News Broadcasting
WTA Tour launches magazine-style TV show
MUMBAI: In a bid to create more personality around tennis The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour is launching a 12-episode television series.
The show will give viewers a glimpse of the off-court passions and lifestyles of the stars.
In India WTA action airs on Ten Sports. The magazine-style show, sponsored by Dubai Duty Free and entitled Dubai Duty Free presents Real Life On The WTA Tour, will be packed each month with intimate features, human-interest stories and behind-the-scenes footage.
The half an hour shows, produced by the Tour and KC Productions, debut on 26 July on Eurosport, potentially exposing the women’s game to 240 million viewers in 54 countries each year. The series will also air on The Tennis Channel in the US starting on 8 August.
The initial four episodes of ‘Real Life’ are complete and include footage from Tour events held earlier this year in Dubai, Amelia Island, Charleston, Rome, Berlin, Paris and Wimbledon. The premiere episode features multiple Grand Slam champion Serena Williams on a shopping trip in Charleston and getting ready for an awards gala; a day-in-the-life with Justine Henin-Hardenne at Saddlebrook Resort near Tampa, Florida; and rising star Wimbeldon champion Maria Sharapova during her recent Italian Vogue magazine photo shoot.
The new series will compliment the Tour’s recently-launched European television news service. The news service creates and distributes highlights of major European Tour events to broadcast media outlets around the world, further expanding the visibility of the game
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.
