News Broadcasting
Australian series Wentworth set for a German remake
MUMBAI: The Australian prison drama, Wentworth that has won millions of fans will now be adapted into German. The series will be produced by UFA Serial Drama, FremantleMedia’s German production arm UFA and RTL.
FremantleMedia has always been known for hit formats like Idol and The X Factor that has been adapted in several languages. For the current deal, the commission will have 10 episodes of the German version which goes into production in Berlin in March next year.
Based on FremantleMedia’s Australia series, the compelling and emotional Wentworth will follow the same gritty story of survival, rivalry, power struggles and unlikely allegiances within a female prison.
The original series that was launched in Australia earlier this year became the most watched non-sports programme in the Australian subscription television history ever. Even in the UK, the series became the number one primetime Australian drama in the UK since 2002.
Talking about the deal, RTL head of fiction Barbara Thielen said in a press release: “The stories and characters of Wentworth will polarise and initiate discussions among the audience. Many women whose fates we are telling are certainly guilty in a legal sense, but if you can condemn them in a moral sense as well, everyone will judge differently.”
UFA Serial Drama chief creative officer Guido Reinhardt commented: “Wentworth is dynamic, controversial as well as emphatic. In this field of tension we present an uncompromising world, where friendship, trust and loyalty means everything and the question whether law and justice are actually the same is repeatedly raised. The answer to this is more than complex and thus a fascinating subject – packed in a highly emotional series.”
The Australian drama airs on Foxtel Australia and the second season of the show is currently under production in Melbourne. The Australian version has been sold to Africa (MNET), Eire (TV3), Sweden (TV4), Scandinavia (CMORE), New Zealand (TVNZ) and UK (FIVE). It is also available in 15 markets through a pan-Eastern Europe deal with SPI. Additionally, deals for season two have been concluded for UK, Eire, Scandinavia, Sweden and New Zealand.
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.
