News Broadcasting
Zee DNA unveils Super Sixes Corporate Cricket Challenge
MUMBAI: Zee Network and DNA (Daily News & Analysis) have announced the Zee DNA Super Sixes Corporate Cricket Challenge. Four ex-captains and leading international cricket players will team up with corporate India’s best cricket teams in the Zee DNA Super Sixes.
The winning team gets an all expenses paid trip to watch India’s first 20-20 match against South Africa in Johannesburg and a Rolling Gold Trophy., according to an official release.
The tournament will see players from corporate cricket teams playing alongside cricketing stalwarts such as Mohammad Azharuddin, Dilip Vengsarkar, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Arvinda Desilva, Romesh Kaluwitarna, Venkatesh Prasad and Nayan Mongia, the release adds.
64 teams comprising six players will participate in this tournament. These 64 teams will be divided into four groups of 16 teams each. Eight teams will qualify for the semi finals. The qualifying matches will be played on 28 – 29 October and the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals on 12 November in Mumbai. Zee Sports will telecast highlights of the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals the following weekend.
Speaking on the tournament, Zee Network CEO Pradeep Guha said, “Zee DNA Super Sixes is different from regular corporate cricket tournaments, both in format as well as composition. Indian & international cricket stars will be playing as part of the final eight teams.”
Adding further, he said, “All members of the winning team will get an opportunity to travel to South Africa to watch India play South Africa in their first ever 20-20 one day game to be played in Johannesburg on 1 December 2006.”
One International cricket player will be a part of each of the eight teams from the quarter-final stage onwards (four quarters + two semis + one final). Noted commentator & former cricketer Charu Sharma and Ayaz Memon have been roped in for commentary throughout the tournament. Kapil Dev will be the Chief Guest for the mega finals and will award the Rolling Gold Trophy to the winning team.
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.
