News Broadcasting
Skycom to develop HDTV STB in Singapore
MUMBAI: Skycom Satellite Systems is being selected by MediaCorp to develop a High Definition TV set top box in Singapore for the HDTV trial starting June 2007 for a period of six months.
Skycom Satellite Systems has manufactured different models of Satellite and Terrestrial set top boxes being sold directly to end users, TV Operators as well as OEM manufacturing for various established brands.
In this HDTV STB project, which is considered the first in the world, Skycom Satellite Systems is the main development center using technologies from Singapore, India and HK/China, according to an official release.
With less than six months to start from concept development, to product and software development, comprehensive testing in laboratory and with Mediacorp and ST engineers, plus the boxes to be manufactured and delivered in June, the official launch date of Singapore HDTV service,the mission is critical with huge time pressure.
And it is foreseen that there is requirement to integrate IPTV function with DTT box or vice versa. For example, Skycom box, with further R&D development, can receive the IPTV service(s) that may be launched in Singapore.
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.
