News Broadcasting
Sena supremo Thackeray condemns CAS
MUMBAI: Shiv Sena supremo and an important ally of the NDA government, Bal Thackeray, has warned the government that it will find its decision to go ahead with conditional access system an “expensive one”.
THE TIGER GROWLS: Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray slams CAS.
At a press conference at his Mumbai residence a short while ago, Thackeray issued a veiled threat to the government saying his party will take steps to oppose it outright. “I will not highlight what steps we will take in opposition, but go against it we will.”
He added, “The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) has not managed to put the Ram Mandir that it committed it would, it has rather set up a Daam (High cost for consumer) Mandir.”
He pointed out that “CAS is totally anti-consumer. Consumers will have to buy a set top box for each of the TVs in their rooms. That is Rs 6,000 for each TV set. The middle class will not be able to bear this burden.”
He basically labeled the move towards CAS as Gapla (translated: racketeering). Thackeray directly accused the government of colluding with an unnamed business magnate based in London, who would benefit in a big way from the implementation of CAS through the offload of set top boxes.
The announcement should come as a blow to the ruling NDA government. I&B minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has voiced that viewers will be able to get all the pay channels at Rs 200, and that the government had the consumer at the centre of the CAS decision. Already factions within the BJP which leads the NDA government have growled that CAS in its current form was not welcome. Recently Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit (who belongs to the Congress) had come out against CAS as being anti-consumer. However, that was before the government slashed duties on the import of STBs from 55 per cent to 5 per cent.
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.
