News Broadcasting
Judy McGrath is MTV Networks chairman, CEO
MUMBAI: Former MTV Networks group president Judy McGrath has been promoted to the role of chairman and CEO.
McGrath takes on Viacom co-COO Tom Frestons previous role. This includes overall responsibility for the networks including MTV international, Nickelodeon, Spike TV. Meanwhile MTV Networks president and COO Mark Rosenthal has left the company.
It was last year that McGrath became MTV Networks group president. She had taken on the responsibility of MTV, MTV2, VH1, CMT and Comedy Central.
What is interesting is that at the Promax&BDA Conference in New York it was McGrath who made the suggestion to Promax&BDA president and CEO Jim Chabin that India should have its own conference. That came about as McGrath recognised India as playing an increasingly important role in the creative space.
Coming back to the promotion Freston added, “Judy is the perfect fit for this job. Ours is a business of creative vision, smart brand building, unrelenting consumer focus and good execution. We are riding at an all-time high now, clearly the industry leader, and I feel very proud and fortunate to be able to turn this job over to Judy and very much look forward to seeing her influence on the company grow and grow.”
McGrath said, “I couldnt be more excited and honoured to take on this new role. Over the past 17 years, Tom set the tone for the most unique and vibrant culture in the media world.
“My top priority is to continue to make this the best place for talented people to do their best work. I inherit the strongest management team in the business in Herb Scannell and Bill Roedy, and I cant wait to get started on working with them and their respective teams to take MTV Networks boldly into the future. This will be fun.”
MTV claims to be operating at record highs, from both a creative and business perspective. It claims a reach of 400 million viewers in 164 countries and 18 languages through 94 channels worldwide.
MTV’s parent Viacom issued a release stating that it was under McGrath’s direction that MTV grew from a maverick cable channel to a maverick global brand that has come to symbolise a culture, a style, an attitude and a vibrant musical landscape.
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.
