News Broadcasting
Bombay High Court stays BARC order against India Today
NEW DELHI: The TRP manipulation row has embroiled several parties including news broadcasters, research agencies and police authorities. The row is getting murkier as it goes along.
Last week, the Bombay high court stayed an order passed by BARC disciplinary committee and directed BARC India not to take any coercive action against India Today Group subject to a deposit of Rs 5 lakh with the court. Now, after various sections of news media purportedly misreported facts in the case, India Today has issued a clarification.
Referring to the plea it filed against the BARC order, TV Today said in a statement, “The petition filed challenges an order passed by the BARC disciplinary committee on the grounds that it was without an appropriate quorum and without presenting evidence, among other criteria. The court has stayed the order and directed that no coercive action be taken subject to a deposit of 5 lakh with the court– and not with BARC– and without prejudice to our rights.”
The media house pointed out the misinterpretation of the court order by several news outlets that TV Today must pay a fine of Rs 5 lakh to BARC. “It is unfortunate that certain sections of the media are misreporting the reasons for TV Today approaching the Bombay high court against BARC,” it said.
The network also clarified that the Hansa report has nothing to do with the case filed by it against BARC. “Similarly, any mention of TV Today's name in the Hansa report is something we are completely unaware of. We are not privy to any such information, and neither has BARC informed us of the report.”
The TRP manipulation scam was unearthed by the Mumbai police on 8 October. Since then, several news broadcasters have been reeled into the controversy surrounding the matter. Charges and allegations have freely flown and a string of law suits and FIRs have been filed, with no end seemingly in sight.
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.
