News Broadcasting
Pak delegation to take part in Ficci Frames 2004
MUMBAI: An official Pakistani entertainment industry delegation is slated to visit India to participate in Ficci Frames 2004.
The delegation includes the Pakistan Film Producers Association chairman, prominent filmmakers (producers and directors) and famous artistes and technicians.
According to industry sources, Pakistan’s participation in Frames 2004 is aimed at discussing a broader range of media collaborations between the entertainment industries of the two countries.
Apart from a session of ‘India & Pakistan: A New Era of Cooperation in Entertainment Industry’ at Frames 2004, the delegation is also scheduled to hold joint press conferences with Ficci to chart out and highlight the roadmap for future exchanges and cooperation in the entertainment industry. The delegation would also be visiting film studios to get a first-hand experience of the Indian film industry.
The delegation’s India visit could well be the first step in developing a legitimate channel for the highly popular Indian films in Pakistan. There was a time when Indian films like Awara, Aan, Andaaz, Anarkali and Dupatta ran to packed houses in Pakistan for 50 plus weeks.
At present, there is a legal ban in Pakistan on importing media content from India. But that has led to rampant piracy and in any case, the ban is not practically effective courtesy pirated videos and to some extent the internet.
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.
