News Broadcasting
HTMT to merge media units, plans IPO
MUMBAI:Hinduja TMT may merge its media subsidiaries into a single entity and opt for an initial public offering (IPO) by next year.
Chairman Ashok Hinduja announced this at the company’s annual general meeting on Tuesday. Among the companies that will be merged are InNetwork Entertainment Ltd (INEL), Cable Video India Ltd, IndusInd Entertainment Ltd (IEL) and IndusInd Media and Communications Ltd.
While the finer details of the IPO, including the size of the issue, are yet to be worked out, Hinduja said that Shop24Seven, the companys media and e-commerce company, will also go in for an IPO next year. The home shopping satellite TV channel was launched in November 2001. Hinduja said that the shopping channel was set to break even in 10 months of its existence.
HTMT recently acquired 100 per cent equity control in Cable Video India Limited (CVIL) by buying out the 49 per cent stake of Asia Vision Entertainment Private Ltd. CVIL handles the Hindi cable movie channel CVO and has a library of 1,600 movies, while INEL is into production, acquisition and distribution of films. IEL is into local TV content and operates the IN brand of cable TV channels in several languages.
HTMT will continue to focus on its IT business and is aiming at a cent per cent growth in turnover and 70 per cent rise in net profit, Hinduja said. Export earnings from media and IT sector, said Mr Hinduja, are expected to increase from Rs 500 million to Rs 1250 million in the current fiscal.
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.
