News Broadcasting
PBS and Discovery Education partner to distribute PBS programs to schools
MUMBAI: PBS and Discovery Education have inked a major multi-year media partnership through which PBS has licensed hundreds of hours from its most acclaimed series and specials for distribution to schools through Discovery Education’s digital learning services.
PBS titles to be made available via Discovery Education include The Civil War and other Ken Burns documentaries; Freedom: A History of US; the complete CyberChase series; and selected episodes from Nova, American Experience, Frontline and others.
A number of local PBS stations already partner with Discovery Education in delivering its flagship video-on-demand service and united streaming as part of their portfolio of local education offerings.
“For both PBS and our local stations, this new partnership represents an important opportunity to bring PBS content to a growing audience of educators. PBS is entering into a number of new, non-exclusive licensing relationships to broaden the reach of our award-winning education resources, and we are pleased that the first of these new partnerships is with Discovery Education,” said PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger.
Beginning this fall, schools nationwide will have the opportunity to receive the PBS library as a supplement to united streaming. As with all content delivered through united streaming, the PBS programs will be correlated to state curriculum standards, chaptered into content-specific video clips and offered for teachers to stream or download for instructional use.
“This expansion of Discovery Education’s relationship with PBS underscores the alignments of our values and missions. We’re delighted that this arrangement will give teachers and students the opportunity to access these high-quality titles — on-demand — through our award-winning platform,” said Discovery Education president Steve Sidel.
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.
