News Broadcasting
Times Now to launch by mid-January; test run on
MUMABI: Times Now, the news channel from the Times of India Group, is all set for launch, laying the ground for competition in the English news space so far dominated by NDTV 24X7. Just a fortnight back saw the launch of CNN-IBN whose shareholders include the Television Eighteen Group, Rajdeep Sardesai and Sameer Manchanda.
A test run of the channel is on after the uplinking permission was obtained in December-end. Confirming this, Times Global Broadcasting VP and business head Partho Das Gupta said, “We kicked off the show reel yesterday. We expect to launch the channel very soon.”
Sources say Times Now will launch by mid-January. The company has already tied-up with major cable networks such as Hathway Cable & Datacom and Incablenet for carriage of the channel across the country.
The pay channel will target urban audiences, Gupta added. Apart from hardcore general and business news, the channel will have lifestyle programmes. The channel has also firmed up its weekend line-up – Brand Equity, All About Her, Life’s Like That, Entertainment Now, By Invitation Only (to be hosted by Lillete Dubey) and The Foodie, among others.
The channel has roped in the popular model Kelly Dorji for a sports show – Sports Unplugged. Editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami will anchor several shows including Frankly Speaking and The Newshour – News in Context. Among the other programmes the channel has lined up are Reuters World Report ( global news), Line Of Duty, Upfront, Snapshots, Nine to Noon and Terminal Cap (business news) and 16 Minutes — Morning News.
Times Global Broadcasting Company Ltd is a joint venture between Times of India Group and Reuters which holds 26 per cent stake.
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.
