News Broadcasting
Zee stake at 73% after ETC allots preferential shares
ETC Networks Ltd has received a welcome cash infusion after its board yesterday approved the preferential allotment of slightly over 2.2 million equity shares to Subhash Chandra’s Zee Telefilms Limited for about Rs 70 million.
This latest transaction takes Zee’s stake in ETC to 73.35 per cent in the immediate term. The cash inflow is likely to be used to finance any further expansion plans that ETC may have.
A total of 2,220,812 shares were alloted at Rs 31.52 per Rs 10 share for just under Rs 70 million (Rs 69,999,994 to be exact) and ETC convened an extraordinary general body meeting (EGM) today to obtain shareholders’ approval.
It was last Monday that Zee took a controlling stake in ETC by mopping up 48.32 per cent of the company’s issued subscribed share capital for Rs 178.4 million. This was followed up last Wednesday by Zee announcing its open offer for 2,339,900 shares to acquire an additional 20 per cent equity stake of ETC Networks at Rs 31.52 per share.
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.
