News Broadcasting
BBC launches ‘Home Movie’ initiative in the UK
MUMBAI: The BBC director of television Jana Bennett has announced the launch of Home Movie. The BBC claims that this is its biggest and most inclusive public participation event ever staged. It will give people in the UK the chance to make and star in their own television film.
This is the first new project to come out of Jana Bennett’s 10m Think Big initiative. The aim is to encourage ambitious thinking and multi-faceted programme events that reach under served audiences. Home Movie is a pan-BBC collaboration across arts, drama , BBC Talent and BBCi.
The beeb will search the UK for a cast and crew of 100. None of them will have worked in film or TV before. The aim is to offer people the chance to re-train in a totally different field of expertise.
Meanwhile BBCi will host an online questionnaire to shortlist crew applicants, with interviews and auditions for cast and crew taking place in seven locations around the UK. All the 100 people chosen will benefit from a comprehensive training scheme, whilst a substantial outreach programme of master-classes and workshops will offer thousands of people advice and information aboutembarking on their own retraining programme.
Once selected, the amateur cast and crew will make their own movie, led by a professional producer and director, under the guidance of a team of industry expert mentors. BBC Three will follow the trials and tribulations of the casting and interview process while BBC Two will go behind-the-scenes in a ten part documentary series following every step of the process with these first-time film-makers. The world premiere of the film will take place on the BBC and will include live link-ups around the country to special cinema screenings.
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.
