News Broadcasting
CNN to air India’s Big Chance from 11 June
MUMBAI: India is the fastest growing economy in the world. In the past two years, the country even managed to benefit from the global crude oil price crash. The largest democracy on earth has a young and vibrant population and is poised for a technological boom. As it opens up to a globalised world, India still has a depth of history and intensity of culture that awes and fascinates tourists from all parts of the world.
During the half-hour special, CNN’s Indian-born Fareed Zakaria speaks with some of India’s key figures including:
• Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man and Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited, the country’s second most profitable company
• Bollywood’s #1 superstar Shah Rukh Khan
• Kunal Bahl, founder and CEO of SnapDeal, India’s leading e-commerce platform
Coming from different professional branches, the portrayed personalities try to find out if now is India’s big chance.
Airtimes (New Delhi/Mumbai)
Saturday June 11 at 1900 IST
Sunday June 12 at 1100 IST
Monday June 13 and at 0000 IST
Tuesday June 14 at 2200 IST
Wednesday June 15 at 1400 IST
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.
