News Broadcasting
Shakeup at Siticable
Siticable is going through a bout of restructuring what with Zee Telefilms chief executive R.K. Singh and president (distribution) Tony D’silva, putting their imprint on the MSO, which boasts a penetration of 5.5 million homes.
For starters, Zee Telefilms has restructured its distribution operations into four units – Siticable (distribution and development), Direct to operator (its digital bouquet package), ad sales, and Internet through cable.
Changes are taking place even as far as the people heading some activities is concerned. Hari Goenka, who headed Siticable’s northern operations for quite some time, has been shifted along with C.S. Arora, another senior executive into the HFC (hybrid fibre coax cable project). Sunil Khanna, who was heading ad sales for Siticable, for more than half a decade has resigned from the company. The company is on the lookout for a replacement.
The operations of the northern and central regions of Siticable have been merged into one with the regional director (north and central) being R. Marwah.
In the south, the operations have yet to be rationalised with two regional directors, one looking after Andhra Pradesh, one after Karnataka. The western region has D.K. Pandey, spearheading Maharashtra while A. Jain looks after Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. The company does not have a regional director looking after the west as a whole. Neither does it have one for the east. Again, efforts are being made to fill the vacancies.
Singh and D’silva will have to move fast just to stay in place. The reason: even rival Star TV has its eye on the same target, getting lots more cachet with Indian cable TV operators through distribution initiatives.
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.
