News Broadcasting
Prasar Bharati threatens legal action against defaulting producers
MUMBAI: Prasar Bharati is likely to initiate legal proceedings against defaulting production houses, which owe it dues amounting to nearly Rs 1450 million.
Prasar Bharati CEO K S Sarma said on Wednesday that the defaulters, who have so far been issued show cause notices in vain, could have winding up proceedings initiated against them, which would be followed by litigation. Production houses which may opt for the arbitration route after that will have to contend with a strict Prasar Bharati, Sarma said.
National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) leads the defaulters list, with dues of Rs 480 million. The corporation however, recently paid up Rs 200 million of its pending dues and interest thereon. Among the 45 to 50 defaulters, 10 defaulting production houses owe the pubcaster dues of more than Rs 50 million. Among the prominent names in the list are Dheeraj Kumar’s Creative Eye and Sanjay Khan’s Numero Uno Productions. Several others, like Ramanand Sagar, have offered software in lieu of payment, but Sarma says software potential evaluation is difficult in monetary terms. After waiting for nearly four years, the pubcaster has now decided to go the legal way, although Sarma says he would like to maintain amicable relations with the production houses as several of them have created valuable software for DD in the past.
Henceforth, all the defaulters would be dealt with by DD on an advance payment basis. The production houses would have to issue post dated cheques to DD and bank guarantees to ensure that they do not default on payment, he said.
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.
