News Broadcasting
EBU calls for pubcasters’ greater role
MUMBAI: A clear mandate and sufficient funding to offer a full and evolving range of services in the new media is what the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is hoping from pubcasters in Europe.
To achieve this, the EBU has called on the European Union’s (EU) 25 member states to support the EU’s Lisbon Strategy
EBU is the professional association of Europe’s public service broadcasters. Senior officials of the EBU were attending a conference organised by the Dutch government – current holder of the EU presidency. The conference was called The key role of public service broadcasting in the 21st century .
The earlier mentioned Lisbon Strategy sees a decisive role for the audiovisual sector in making Europe the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010.
EBU President Arne Wessberg, who is director general of the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation YLE, said that it was the responsibility of public broadcasters to serve the diversity of publics and cultures within their country. This can be done through the new electronic media as well as on television and radio.
He said, “Public service broadcasters must be given proper possibilities, by the societies in which they operate, to serve citizens with all media technologies they choose to use, and under adequate and predictable economic conditions”.
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.
