News Broadcasting
Prasar Bharati financial rejig delayed
NEW DELHI: The Indian government has said that the terms of a committee looking into the financial restructuring of pubcaster Prasar Bharati has been extended till year-end, which is likely to delay implementation of panels suggestions.
As the collation and compilation of the requisite data from various field units is likely to take more time, the term of the committee has been extended by three months up to 31 December, 2005 for submission of its report, information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi told Rajya Sabha (Upper House) today.
A committee, headed by I&B secretary SK Arora, was appointed by the government on 30 March, 2005 for suggesting a viable capital and financial structure for the cash-strapped Prasar Bharati to facilitate the strengthening of its functioning.
The terms are from references of the panel which was to propose a viable capital and financial structure for Prasar Bharati, while taking into account the broadcasters role as a pubcaster and the need to maximise revenue-earning potential through commercial operations.
Meanwhile, the government also said that All India Radio proposes to increase FM radio coverage to about 50 per cent of the population during the Tenth Five-Year Plan.
The present FM coverage is about 33 per cent by population, Dasmunsi informed fellow parliamentarians, adding the whole, however, is covered through short wave signals.
Twelve satellite radio channels of AIR are available on Doordarshans DTH platform throughout the country except Andaman & Nicobar islands.
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.
