News Broadcasting
BBC’s Jana Bennett the keynote speaker at MIPTV, Milia
MUMBAI: BBC Television director Jana Bennett will kick off proceedings at MIPTV and Milia 2004. The event takes place in Cannes from 29 March – 2 April.
In her keynote speech she will dwell on The Future of Television Programming in a Cross-Platform World. Bennett replaces former BBC DG Greg Dyke as the opening keynote speaker. Dyke resigned from the BBC in January following the Hutton report.
In her speech, Bennett will underline the growing importance of convergence to television executives – a subject which is set to be at the heart of this years MIPTV and Milia. Event attendees will come together to explore new business opportunities created by the increasing links between traditional television, digital technology and content, and new distribution platforms.
To facilitate this exchange of views, the Milia 2004 conference programme will offer sessions looking at networked home entertainment, cross-platform content creation, participation television and new distribution opportunities provided by the emerging broadband and mobile channels. In addition, content security solutions, as well as on-line and mobile games, will be featured.
On 31 March, Sony Pictures Digital Networks (US) executive VP Patrick Kennedy will deliver a keynote speech on the Future of Entertainment for the Always-On Generation. Another keynote speech at the event is Mobile ntertainment: The Next Generation. This will examine the impact of mobile telephony on the entertainment industry. The speaker is News Corp senior VP content and marketing Lucy Hood.
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.
