Israeli television

Television in Israel refers to television broadcasting services in the State of Israel, inaugurated on March 24, 1966. Initially, there was one state-owned channel, operated jointly by the Israel Broadcasting Authority and the Israeli Educational Television. In 1986, a second state-regulated channel was launched. This channel became a state-regulated commercial channel in 1993. An additional commercial channel was introduced in 2002, followed by the introduction of three commercial niche channels: an Israeli Russian-speaking channel (in 2002), a channel of Israeli popular music (in 2003) and an Arabic-speaking channel (in 2012). Colour transmissions were introduced gradually around 1980. Multichannel cable television service became available to subscribers gradually since 1990, but small illegal cable TV stations operated in the big cities already during the 1980s. Satellite-based multichannel service has been available since 2000. Almost 75% of the population is subscribed to pay TV systems which are provided either by a cable service called "HOT", or by a satellite service called "yes". The Israel Broadcasting Authority was closed down in May 2017 and replaced by the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation as the operator of the state-owned TV channels. Channel 2 is expected to split into two different channels in November 2017, by giving each of the two current operating commercial companies a channel of its own.

Upon its establishment in May 1948, Israel had one radio station, run directly by the government, which was a continuation of the British Mandate's Hebrew radio station. The first governments, headed by David Ben Gurion, did not view in favor the establishment of TV stations. Nevertheless, the Israeli government discussed the idea of using television as an instructional and educational tool in 1952 and 1955. In 1961 the Israeli government asked UNESCO to offer its opinion, which was in favor of using television for educational purposes. In the early 1960s, television broadcasts from neighboring Egypt, Lebanon and Cyprus gradually became available to Israelis through TV sets which were placed in public places, like cafés. Since they were mainly in Arabic, these broadcasts were popular among Israeli Arabs. This raised the government's concern about anti-Israel propaganda that might be included in them.
When Levy Eshkol assumed power as prime minister in June 1963, he started to promote the establishment of an Israeli TV channel. In 1964, he invited a team of experts from the European Broadcasting Union to submit their recommendations. In 1965, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority was established in order to distant the government from the everyday management and editorial decisions of the state-owned radio station. The government also passed a resolution stating that this new body will start TV broadcasts within two years.

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