News Broadcasting
BBC implementing radical change : Michael Grade
MUMBAI: The BBC’s public service mission for the 21st century remains unchanged. But the BBC has to change to demonstrate it can and will deliver it..
This was the core of the message that BBC chairman Michael Grade delivered in his keynote address to the CBI annual conference in Birmingham
“The BBC has to return a dividend to the public whose licence fees support the BBC. A dividend not in cash. But a dividend nevertheless of real and measurable value to the public, both as individuals and as citizens”.
He described how the BBC’s five core purposes, together with new governance initiatives, like service licences and the public value test, will provide greater clarity to drive the BBC to deliver its public service mission and to be more accountable for its performance.
Grade said that an important element of the BBC’s reforms was the changes to the governance system. He said the need to change had been too pressing to await the outcome of the Charter review debate.
Grade said that, while the current system of governance had been in need of radical reform, he believed it remained the most appropriate model for the BBC and he explained why other governance models currently being discussed would not work for the Corporation.
“It’s sometimes said that there’s a fundamental design problem with a system that asks BBC Governors to be both cheerleaders and regulators. Of course there is a potential contradiction. But it’s not significant as long as the Governors don’t confuse championing the BBC with championing the management of the BBC.
“The supervisory structure appropriate to a commercial broadcaster albeit one with some public service obligations is not right for the BBC which receives nearly three billion pounds in public money.”
He added that one area of great importance to the Governors, and where they are looking to do more, is getting closer to licence payers in order to understand their concerns.
“I think that the internet and the new digital technologies should contribute to a solution. In the New Year, we will announce our programme of action to connect with the licence fee payers who are our customers and our owners. They deserve better than a passive role.
“We are publishing new, much more tightly drawn, objectives. They focus on how bbc.co.uk can be made more distinctive, and deliver more public value, in this developing and growing market.
“We’ve reviewed our portfolio of websites and closed some sites down because they would not meet our new test of public value.There are further closures and spending reallocations within online to come as we specify what we won’t do, as well as what we will.”
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.
