News Broadcasting
Zee Media appoints Manish Seth as chief revenue officer
NEW DELHI: Zee Media has brought in Manish Seth as chief revenue officer, banking on his track record of doubling digital revenues to power the broadcaster’s next growth phase.
Seth joins with immediate effect from 28 October, the company told stock exchanges on Monday. The appointment, approved by the board on the recommendation of the nomination and remuneration committee, designates him as senior management personnel under India’s listing regulations.
The new chief revenue officer arrives with a formidable reputation. At TV9 Network, where he most recently served as revenue head for digital and business head for Money9, Seth doubled digital revenues in just two years. He also pioneered integrated television and digital sales models that broke new ground in Indian media.
Before TV9, Seth spent years at Zee Unimedia, Zee Media and Bennett Coleman, consistently delivering double-digit growth and launching multiple channels and products. His expertise spans revenue strategy, sales transformation, go-to-market planning and profit-and-loss management across broadcast and digital platforms.
Seth holds a postgraduate diploma in marketing management from the Times School of Marketing and a bachelor’s degree in science from Delhi University.
Zee Media is betting that Seth’s digital chops and proven ability to build high-performing teams will accelerate its transformation at a time when traditional broadcasters are scrambling to capture online audiences and advertising rupees. With 25 years of trench warfare in media sales under his belt, Seth now has the mandate to write the next chapter of Zee Media’s revenue story.
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.
