News Broadcasting
Europe’s first HDTV service launches in Jan ’03
PARIS: The trend towards high definition television (HDTV) is growing steadily.
In the US, 2.5 million HD sets will be sold this year according to the American Consumer Electronics Association. Not one to be left behind, Europeans will also experience HDTV from next year.
Europe’s first HDTV channel Euro1080 will commence broadcast from 1 January 2004. It will launch from SES-Astra’s 19.2-degree East orbital position. The European dimension of the station will eliminate all language barriers, with a program consisting of sport, music, shows and cultural venues. Highlights will include the European and the World Soccer Championships, the Olympic Summer, Winter Games. The first programme on the anvil is the New Year’s Concert from Vienna.
The two-channel service is operated by Belgian production company Alfacam. The Main Channel will offer four hours of programmes a day. This will be a mix of live and recorded stuff. It will go to European households and to small venues (sports bars, hotel chains, airports, etc). It will be free-to-air via satellite, with a footprint between Norway, Portugal and Greece, covering over 30 countries.
The second Euro1080 channel, the Event Channel, will be distributed to theatres. Event programmes, either live or delayed live, are sent out to Event Cinemas. These are theatres equipped with electronic projection and 5.1 surround sound systems. The content will range from big events to specific regional programming.
As a result of this hardware, companies will feel the need to innovate and launch their products on the European market. Internationally, the impact of HDTV will also get heavier, since it will be present on all continents except Africa.
The European service will offer more lines, more pixels and more colours. The number 1080 refers to the number of lines on the screen. Standard Definition offers only 625 lines.
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.
