News Broadcasting
MyNetworkTV, Sinclair Broadcast enter into affiliate agreement
MUMBAI: Foxs new primetime television network MyNetworkTV has secured affiliate agreements with Sinclair Broadcast Group to launch the network on 5 September 2006.
The announcement was jointly made today by Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernethy and Sinclair Broadcast Group president and CEO David Smith.
A total of 17 stations covering 11.9 per cent of the US owned or operated by Sinclair will officially become MyNetworkTV affiliates.
These include WTTA/Tampa, WCWB/Pittsburgh, WRDC/Raleigh, WUXP/Nashville, WCGV/Milwaukee, WSTR/Cincinnati, WBSC/Greenville, KRRT/San Antonio, WABM/Birmingham, WTVZ/ Norfolk, WNYO/Buffalo, WUPN/Greensboro, KVWB/Las Vegas, WFGX/Mobile, WMMP/Charleston, SC, WDKA/Paducah and WNYS/Syracuse.
These Sinclair stations join Fox Television Stations WWOR/New York, KCOP/Los Angeles, WPWR/ Chicago, KDFI/Dallas, WDCA/Washington, D.C., KTXH/Houston, WFTC/Minneapolis, KUTP/Phoenix, WRBW/ Orlando and WUTB/Baltimore.
Sinclair is operated by some of the smartest people in the business. Their decision to become MyNetworkTV affiliates further endorses our approach to provide local broadcasters with network programming and a business model required to succeed in todays converging digital marketplace, said Abernethy.
Smith added, We are excited once again to be part of the birth of a new network. We believe that over time this new network model will become a standard in the industry. The advantages MyNetworkTV provides to our stations are compelling, with both a creative programming model for our viewers and a favourable inventory split. We are especially excited about the Internet opportunities that will exist at the local level within this new paradigm.
MyNetworkTV will program 12 hours of original programming Monday through Saturday. Station-friendly by design, MyNetworkTV will enable broadcasters with significant operational flexibility and a seamless flow of original primetime programming. The networks pro-station strategy also intends to strengthen consumer recognition and increase viewership with powerful marketing initiatives conceived to unify the networks brand on both the national and local levels.
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.
