News Broadcasting
Broadcast News seeks uplink permission
MUMBAI: Broadcast News, Rajdeep Sardesai’s new venture in collaboration with Television Eighteen Group, has sought permission to uplink a news channel.
A government source confirmed the move, but did not give a time frame for the clearance of the proposal. “A working name (of the proposed channel) is mentioned in the uplink application,” the official admitted, when quizzed on the issue, adding that the permission would be given subject to clearance from other government agencies.
After obtaining a green signal from the I&B ministry, the proposed channel will have to get several other clearances from various agencies, including the department of telecommunications.
The yet-to-be-named channel is targeting a launch later this year. It is also expected that the new channel would be in English, while another news channel is being planned for an early 2006 launch, according to information available with Indiantelevision.com.
The proposed channel’s operations will be carried out from an office-cum-studio complex to be located in the Film City in Noida, on the outskirts of Delhi.
At the moment, Sardesai and associates are scouting professionals for the news channel. Some production people, associated with NDTV 24×7’s Big Fight that used to be hosted by Sardesai, have already quit to join forces at Broadcast News.
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.
