News Broadcasting
In week 35, Arnab Goswami rules the Indian news waves
BENGALORE: The Arnab Goswami led English News channel Republic TV and Hindi News channel Republic Bharat both topped the news genre in their respective languages in Week 35 (Saturday, 29 August 2020 to Friday, 4 September 2020, week or period under review) based on Broadcast Audience Research Council of India weekly data put up in the public domain. And based on the breakup of rural and urban markets, Republic Bharat was the most watched news channel in both markets.
The News genre has been losing viewership steam that it had gained during the COVID2019 weeks. It was the Republic Network that first questioned the conclusion of suicide arrived at by the Mumbai Police without any preliminary investigations or autopsy on Rajput. The coverage of the shenanigans of the Maharashtra chief minister Thakerey’s party members over the issue as well as utterances by the ruling Shiv Sena’s authorised spokesperson Sanjay Raut against Kangana Ranaut, a female Indian actor only helped boosting Republic TV and Republic Bharat viewership. Has Thakerey bitten off more than he can chew?
Read our coverage on Arnab Goswami
BARC data for top 5 English News channels for week 35 of 2020 shows that Republic TV led its genre by far with 6.563 million weekly impressions. Following far behind at rank 2 was Times Now with just about one third the ratings at 2.194 million weekly impressions. At rank 3 in Week 35 of 2020 was CNN News18 with 1.505 million weekly impressions. DD India at rank 4 garnered 1.405 million weekly impressions followed by India Today Television with 1.381 million weekly impressions at rank 5.
According to a Tweet, that has not been verified by www.indiantelevision.com , Republic TV had an all-time band market share of 51.40 percent in week 35 of 2020. In the case of week days in the time band of 2100 to 2300 hours Republic TV had a market share of 60.28 percent.
As mentioned above, Republic Bharat led the Hindi News genres in the combined as well as the individual urban and rural Hindi speaking markets – HSM (U+R), HSM (U), HSM (R).
Republic Bharat scored 287.062 million weekly impressions in HSM (U+R) in Week 35 of 2020, about 45 percent more than the India Today group’s flagship Hindi News channel Aaj Tak which was ranked 2 with 198.245 million weekly impressions. At rank 3, was TV9 Bharatvarsh with 168.764 million closely followed by India TV at fourth rank with 165.444 million weekly impressions. At fifth rank in HSM (U+R) was News18 India with 134.583 million weekly impressions.
In HSM (U), Republic Bharat led with 168.824 million weekly impressions followed by Aaj Tak with 110.739 million weekly impressions at second place in Week 35 of 2020. At rank 3 was India TV with 99.544 million weekly impressions while at the fourth place was TV9 Bharatvarsh with 90.901 million weekly impressions. At fifth rank was News18 India with 82.699 million weekly impressions in week 35 of 2020 in HSM (U).
In HSM (R), Republic was ranked first with 118.328 million weekly impressions in Week 35 of 2020. Aaj Tak was ranked second with 87.507 million weekly impressions followed by TV9 Bharatvarsh with 77.863 million weekly impressions. India TV was ranked fourth with 65.900 million weekly impressions. At rank 5 was News18 India with 51.884 million weekly impressions in the HSM (R) in Week 35 of 2020.
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.
