News Broadcasting
India Today Online is TVTN’s wholly-owned subsidiary now
MUMBAI: India Today Online Private Limited (ITOPL) has now become a wholly-owned subsidiary of TV Today Network Ltd.
India Today Online, on 28 March 2017, issued and allotted 1,99,20,000 equity shares of Rs. 10 each to Living Media India Limited (LMIL) which constitutes 21.01% of the paid-up share capital of ITOPL, against the loans and advances made by LMIL to ITOPL.
T.V. Today Network (TVTN) entered into an agreement to gift with LMIL on the same date, i.e. 28 March, 2017, under which the TVTN will acquire 1,99,20,000 equity shares of ITOPL of Rs. 10 each (representing 21.01 per cent of the paid-up share capital of ITOPL) from LMIL by way of gift upon completion of procedural requirements under the agreement to gift.
After the aforesaid acquisition, TVTN will hold 100 per cent of the issued and paid-up share capital of ITOPL.
In a separate earlier report, TV Today Network stated that it shall not undertake the agreement, entered into with Entertainment Network (India) Limited, to sell three Metro FM Radio stations, as was earlier approved by the board. TV Today had inked a deal to sell seven Oye FM radio stations to ENIL which operates Radio Mirchi. However, MIB did not approve sale of three stations and the matter went before the Delhi High Court. Such sale agreement was subject to the approval of the MIB or an order from the Delhi High Court allowing the sale of Metro Radio stations whichever is earlier.
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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.
