News Broadcasting
Video, ad revenues boost News Corp’s 4Q results
NEW YORK: Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has done well in the fourth quarter of 2002; thanks to video and DVD sales of its Oscar nominated animated feature Ice Age as well as stronger advertising revenues.
News Corp’s net profit rose to $239 million in the second fiscal quarter, ended 31 December. There was a $606 million loss a year earlier, when the results included a $909 million sports contract write-down. News Corp expects current trends in advertising revenue growth to continue for the second fiscal half, but costs for Fox News will go up on account of the conflict in Iraq.
News Corp’s filmed entertainment unit more than doubled its operating income to $255 million from $115 million a year ago, bolstered by strong video and DVD sales of Ice Age and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and higher syndication profits for TV shows such as King of the Hill and X-Files.
A Reuters report states that operating income at the company’s television unit rose to $165 million from $113 million a year ago.
The Fox television network, produced a wider operating loss due to higher programming costs but chairman Rupert Murdoch predicted the network would benefit from the recent hit reality series American Idol II and Joe Millionaire. Operating income at New Corp’s cable network programming unit, which includes the Fox News Channel, the FX Channel and Los Angeles Dodgers, hit $121 million from $60 million a year ago.
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.
