News Broadcasting
US coalition to canvass for swift DTV transition
MUMBAI: Leaders of a wide spectrum of organisations in the US have announced the formation of the Digital Transition Coalition (DTC).
The coalition will engage in a campaign designed to speed up the transition to digital television and ensure the return of critical spectrum back to the American taxpayer for use in new technologies.
The members of the coalition will include Echostar, Americans for Tax Reform and the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste. The organisation issued a release acknowledging the fact that the US Congress had taken an important step towards ensuring a digital future when they mandated that broadcasters provide a digital signal on par with their analogue service by 2002.
Unfortunately while two years have gone after that deadline, over 60 per cent of television stations in America still have to meet that obligation.
The coalition has set itself goals that include:
* Fostering the immediate availability of the network DTV signals to US consumers.
* Immediate redeployment of the analog spectrum dedicated for public safety access.
* The return of the broadcaster’s analogue spectrum by 31 December 2006.
A site www.IWantMyHDTV.com has also been launched that provides information on the campaign.
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.
