News Broadcasting
Prasar Bharati invites applications for 62 e-auctions of vacant MPEG-4 slots
Mumbai: The public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has invited applications for vacant MPEG-4 slots on the DD Free Dish DTH platform on a pro-rata basis for the period 24 August 2022 to 31 March 2023. The 62nd e-auction process will be tentatively held on 17 August and the last day to submit applications is 16 August.
“The bidding in the e-auction will be open to all genre (language)channels at a starting reserve price of Rs 1.01 crore,” said the public broadcaster in a notice on 8 August.
Only satellite channels licensed by the ministry of information and broadcasting ( MIB) will be allowed to participate in the e-auction. The companies holding valid permission from the MIB can apply for participation in e-auction for the allocation of the DD Free Dish slot. International public broadcasters licensed by MIB can also participate in the e-auction.
According to the circular, successful bidders will be required to make the payments in two monthly installments and as per the policy guidelines for the allotment of DD Free Dish slots. The channels participating in e-auction must pay a mandatory fee of Rs 25, 000 and a participation fee of Rs 10 lakh that should be paid via demand draft. Online training will be provided to all participants before the commencement of the actual e-auction.
The unsuccessful bidders will be refunded with a participation fee within three weeks after the declaration of the e-auction result.
DD Freedish is the free-to-air (FTA) direct to home (DTH) platform, which reaches more than 40 million households in the country. The reach of MPEG-4 is estimated between 2 to 3 million.
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.
