News Broadcasting
NGC looks to score touchdown with ‘Mission Mars’
MUMBAI: Last year, National Geographic Channel’s (NGC) Mission involved Mount Everest. The six month long initiative saw the channel make substantial gains in viewership and ad revenue. This year, the broadcaster is hoping that the Red Planet – Mars will be able to repeat the feat for the channel.
NGC will air the global 12 part special Mission Mars from 11 January every Sunday at 8 pm. The show has also been dubbed in Hindi.
Speaking on the initiative at a media conference in Mumbai this afternoon, NGC’s senior VP, content and communication, Dilshad Master said,” The Mission property will be an annual initiative. The property came about as we were looking for content that would cut through Indians across the board. We are looking at expanding the infotainment genre and Mission Mars will do just that. The Mission formula is topical, inspirational, broad based and showcases our unique access in terms of photography and footage.”
Mission Everest contributed 17 per cent to last year’s ad revenues, according to Master.
Master added that Mission Mars was the result of a four-year collaboration between the broadcaster and Nasa. Around $820 million was invested for Nasa’s Rover missions which are currently in progress. The first Rover Spirit landed successfully on Mars on 4 January. The second one, Opportunity, will land on 25 January. They will further explore the planet’s rocky landscape. The show will go behind the scenes and provide viewers with knowledge of how Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California operates.
Pictures of both the flights will be aired on the show as well the effort that went into making the two Rovers. The show also takes viewers through the excitement of the launch including a last minute hold, which happened due to a fuel system glitch. The show will also examine the nature of space exploration and what advances have been made.
NGC is running a media campaign covering print, radio, outdoors and online. A microsite has been created where visitors will find detailed information on the planet. A contest will be run from 9-23 January. Viewers have to name the two mobile laboratories that have reached Mars and play the contest online or via SMS. Hoardings have been placed at strategic locations in the metro cities exhorting people to watch out for the show. Sponsors lined up include Hutch, LG CDMA and Parle.
To create the important local connect, NGC says it searched the Internet for an Indian who was involved with Nasa’s Mars missions. Planetary Geologist Dr Amitabha Ghosh had studied Martian rocks in 1997 during the pathfinder mission. He was present at the briefing today. He said, ” An understanding into Nasa’s programme is important as the journey to Mars is fraught with failures.
“Out of the four Nasa Mars missions, two have failed. That is because landing is very difficult. There are several processes that have to work together in the space of the final six minutes. 17 scientists were involved with the mission.” For rock examination instruments that are being used include a rock abrasion tool which scrapes off the rocks weathered surface. A panoramic infrared camera is used to survey the 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.
