News Broadcasting
ICC’s three year deal for weekly cricket news show
MUMBAI: A few days ago the ICC Development International (IDI), and the Sportsbrand Media Group reached a three year agreement to produce and distribute on a worldwide basis a cricket news programme called ICC Cricket World.
IDI is the commercial arm of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Sportsbrand is an international sports marketing company,
The show has started airing on Channel 4 and BskyB in the UK. It will also be seen in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka among other countries. The 24 minute weekly show covers the news of cricket from around the globe including all Test matches and One Day Internationals. The show also has off-field features and interviews in order to add colour and human interest perspectives.
IDI MD Malcolm Speed explained that the programme will help ensure that cricket fans from around the world are able to keep in touch with the latest cricket news. He was quoted in an official release saying, “There is enormous worldwide interest in televised cricket and this programme is a key component of the ICCs mission to promote the game as a global sport”.
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.
