News Broadcasting
Network18 widens lead over Times Internet with digital and TV dominance
MUMBAI: If news were a contact sport, Network18 just scored a digital hat-trick while keeping its closest rival, Times Internet, firmly on the defensive. Network18 has cemented its status as India’s undisputed news juggernaut, clocking a towering 300.35 million unique visitors (UVs) in May 2025, according to the latest ComScore MMX data. With a 67 per cent digital reach, it outpaced Times Internet Limited by over 82 million UVs, with the latter trailing at 217.83 million UVs (48 per cent reach).
The digital scoreboard shows a clear trend: Network18 has led for three straight months, with UVs peaking at 321 million in April and 315 million in March, compared to Times Internet’s 196 million and 203 million in the same periods.
It’s not just the network flexing its muscles News18.com, the flagship digital brand, has been leaving The Times of India in the dust. With 245 million UVs in May, News18 maintained a consistent lead over TOI’s 200 million UVs. And the margin’s been widening: April saw News18 at 283 million UVs to TOI’s 173 million, while March posted 251 million vs 182 million, respectively.
But the domination doesn’t stop at pixels. On television, CNN-News18 has held the No. 1 position in English news for over three consecutive years, a feat unmatched in the industry. In the Hindi news universe, News18 India remains the most-watched across the country. Add to that Network18’s reach across regional languages, and the brand’s influence begins to look not just dominant but pan-Indian.
While digital players grapple with fractured attention spans and changing algorithms, Network18 seems to have found the secret sauce reach, consistency, and trust across screens, languages, and formats.
In a media ecosystem obsessed with virality, Network18’s steady, multiplatform march to the top is less flash, more firepower. And in the battle for eyeballs, it’s clear who’s setting the pace and who’s still trying to catch up.
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.
