News Broadcasting
Facebook making people cling to TV
CANNES: Whoever said Facebook and others of its ilk were responsible for driving audiences away from television would be forced to do a rethink after this gem of a revelation from Facebook VP of partnership, Dan Rose.
“Facebook now talks of television. And discussions or comments between friends are more about content aired on television,” said Rose in his keynote address on the inaugural day of Mipcom.
And it didn’t end there. He went on to announce: “We have expanded our list of data partners across the globe.”
Among the ten global TV companies with whom Facebook has partnered is Star India for beta test- this being its first partnership in India. Says Star India, EVP marketing and communications Gayatri Yadav: Star India will be the first media brand in India to partner with Facebook as part of a beta to use their APIs in our programming. The goal is to work closely with Facebook to develop this offering and leverage this tool to gain rich insights into social conversations on Facebook related to our content. Today the first port of call for consumers when they want to talk about content is often social media people love sharing their thoughts and feelings about the latest shows online. This will help us better understand audience reactions to programming and deliver better real time consumer insight.”
The other networks include: TF1, Esporte Interativo, Canal+, CBC, Food Network, Channel 4, ProSieben, and Discovery.”
Rose explained how social media had become an inseparable part of television. “There is now an intersection of social media and TV. In fact, now, TV is leveraging new technology to improve its experience with social media,” he said, while addressing a packed auditorium at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes.
Referring to Facebook as the second screen, Rose said: “So while everyone thought we were driving people away from TV, the second screen is in fact making them cling to TV.”
Substantiating his statement with facts, Rose elaborated: “There were 29 million interactions on Facebook about Wimbledon. When MTV Video Music Awards was aired, there were 26.5 million interactions about the awards on Facebook. Also, NBA finals received close to 125 million interactions.”
Statistically speaking, there are 1.15 billion people on Facebook today. An average mobile user in the US spends approximately 14 hours every month on FB and nearly six hours on Instagram. 18 million people in France are active users of Facebook, of which 11 million use mobile phones for it.
Asked what keeps Facebook alive and ticking, Rose said: “There are three best practices to follow: One, to spark the conversation. Facebook has added #Hashtags and also come up with trending topics to spark conversations. Two, we connect with fans through public figures. People on Facebook love hearing from public figures. And thirdly, leverage tools. We launched public feed API that gives real time feed of public posts.”
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.
