News Broadcasting
IBF petitions Swaraj for tax sops
NEW DELHI: Broadcasters operating in India have sought relief from the government, including tax sops.
They met information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj recently under the aegis of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) as part of a pre-Budget meeting and submitted a memorandum on the issues they want resolved.
“The IBF members did meet me to present their pre-Budget memorandum and I have assured them that the ministry will do its utmost to have the grievances redressed,” Swaraj said today, adding that the broadcasters also lauded the government’s initiative on conditional access and extended help in bringing about addressability in Indian cable homes.
The three main issues that the broadcasters want resolved or looked into by the government are:
– Waiver of five per cent service tax imposed on broadcasting services
– Lowering of customs duty on equipment meant for broadcasting
– Resolving the issues of tax that is deducted at source by the government.
According to Swaraj, while the first two issues are likely to be taken up by her during her meetings with finance minister Jaswant Singh, she advised the broadcasters to petition the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on the last issue.
During 2001-02, the government had levied five per cent service charge on the likes of studio and recording facilities that, the broadcasting industry had said, would have a negative impact on a sector which was still developing in India.
Since then the issue has cropped up time and again and, earlier this year even resulted in some broadcasters like Star India and Sony Entertainment TV India refusing advertisements from companies and their agencies which did not include five per cent service tax in the release order.
On the customs duty, the IBF’s viewpoint is that the various duties levied on equipment meant for broadcasting is not at par with those meant for the IT industry, even when the same equipment was used by both the IT and broadcasting industries.
“The broadcasters felt a separate duty is levied on a equipment which they brought in , while a lower duty was levied when the same equipment was brought by the IT industry. This, according to them, was a discriminatory practice which should be removed,” Swaraj said.
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.
