News Broadcasting
DD News relaunches with new, on-air look
NEW DELHI: DD News, the news channel from the Indian pubcaster Doordarshan’s stable, relaunched today, sporting a new, on-air look.
The channel logo – DD’s logo with ‘News’ written in English – has been redesigned from the earlier version that was launched over two years ago, and closed down after 18 months of existence.
But this time around, the channel logo also bears a tag line that reads ‘satya’, ‘sampoorna’, ‘sarvatra’, meaning truth, complete and omnipresent.
Since the channel was relaunched on the day when the Reserve Bank of India announced the credit and momentary policy, naturally, the subject hogged the limelight today.
Business journalists like Financial Express editor Sanjaya Baru and Economic Times’ senior editor MK Venu were on screen almost all the time, discussing the intricacies of the monetary policy and explaining it in Hindi for the benefit of the common man. DD News’ consulting editor and anchorperson Deepak Chaurasia also made an appearance.
Though DD News has been relaunched in the terrestrial mode, replacing entertainment channel DD Metro, the news channel will be available thorough two satellites also — Pas 10 and Insat 2E . PAS 10 will take DD News to 78 countries in Asia, CIS nations and Europe and through Insat, 28 countries would be covered. On PAS 10, DD News can be downlinked at 68.5 degree East on frequency 4033 MHz, while from Insat 2E the channel is available at 83 degree East on 3980 MHz.
In addition, DD News would be available terrestrially on the 154 transmitters, out of which 63 are high-powered transmitters (HPTs), 85 are low-powered transmitters (LPTs) and six are VeryLPTs.
However seems like DD’s official website, ddindia.com, is still unaware of the relaunch of DD News. The site still mentions DD Metro as one of the many channels in their stable. It is to be seen whether the site will be updated soon.
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.
