News Broadcasting
Delhi HC directs govt to respond to PIL
NEW DELHI: While the government and the industry keep grappling with the issue of CAS, a vacation bench of the Delhi High Court has asked the government to file its response by 26 December on a petition filed by consumer activist groups seeking a stay on the rollout of conditional access.
The court took up the petition filed by Consumer Co-ordination Council (CCC) and the Consumer Online Foundation today and directed that the central government, through the information and broadcasting ministry, file a response stating as to why the rollout of CAS in its present form should not be stayed.
When contacted, a ministry official told indiantelevision.com that the government would study the situation and file a response as directed by the court. The petitioners had stated that CAS in its present form is anti-consumer in Delhi and various doubtful issues persist to haunt it.
In the light of this, the rollout being implemented by the cable industry in South Delhi should be stopped.
The petitioners had also said that such a technology should be rolled out when there is a regulatory body to hear complaints from consumers as well.
The vacation bench comprised Justices V Jain and Pradeep Nandrajog. Petitioners’ counsel Rajiv Bansal argued that there was no sync between the amended and unamended provisions of the Cable TV (Network) Regulation Act, which facilitates implementation of CAS. He also contended that the portion concerned in the Act is violative of the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed to citizens of India under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.
Referring to the Communication Convergence Bill introduced in the Parliament, Bansal said that once it becomes a reality and a law, the CATV Act would be subsumed in it and hence, it is almost obsolete.
The petitioners, apart from other things, had alleged that the government notification on CAS was more “coercive implementation” of set-top boxes than about consumer interest.
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.
