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. 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 two commercial niche channels: an Israeli Russian-speaking channel (in 2002) and a channel of Israeli popular music (in 2003). Colour transmissions were introduced gradually around 1980. Satellite-based multichannel service has been available since 2000.
Television in Israel was introduced in 1966 with the first transmission of the Israeli Educational Television, using black-and-white television technology,[1] intended to be received by 32 schools, in attempt to use television as an instructional tool. [2] The Israeli Broadcasting Authority launched regular public transmissions on 2 May 1968, on the occasion of Israeli Independence Day. Until 1986 Israel had only one television channel shared by IETV and IBA. Experimental transmissions on a second channel started in October 1986 and expanded gradually.
Israeli television started to operate when American and European stations started to switch to full-scale colour transmissions. Nevertheless, the new state-controlled Israeli stations were equipped with black and white facilities as they were cheaper, and as colour productions were deemed unnecessary. Arnon Zuckerman, the IBA director general from 1973 to March 1979, cites Golda Meir (Isrel's Prime Minister 1969-1974) saying about colour television, "It is so artificial, I know it from America. There is no need for this"[3]. During the mid-seventies black and white equipment became rare, so any damaged piece of equipment (VCRs, telecines etc.) had to be replaced with a colour-enabled facility.
According to Yair Lapid's biographical book about his father, Tommy Lapid, who was the IBA director general from April 1979 to March 1984, the IBA had the necessary equipment for filming and broadcasting in colour for nearly a decade before putting it into use; however the introduction of colour transmissions was halted due to political pressure and threats of industrial actions.[4]
Owing to this state of affairs, newscasts and other regular productions were filmed using black and white cameras; however many special productions ordered from private Israeli studios (in particular the Herzliya Studios) were filmed and taped in colour. Furthermore, the Israeli television used to buy many TV series and movies from American and British TV stations (broadcast with Hebrew-Arabic subtitles). The result was a mixture of colour and black and white broadcasts, which encouraged traders to import colour TV sets, especially as TV stations in neighbouring Jordan and Egypt started colour transmissions in 1974.
The Israeli government frowned upon the increasing import of colour TV sets, which it considered a threat to Israeli economic stability and an improper pursuit of luxury, which allegedly increased social gaps. Therefore, the government ordered IBA and IETV to broadcast entirely in black and white and erase the colour from any colour-taped telecast. Technically, this was done by erasing the "burst phase" signal. The "damaged" signal triggered the "colour killer" mechanism, which is installed in colour TV sets in order to prevent the appearance of incidental colour spots on the screen when black-and-white films are broadcast or when the reception is disturbed.
This method was named mekhikon (Hebrew: מחיקון "eraser"), and soon after its introduction, special TV sets with an anti-mekhikon (Hebrew: אנטי-מחיקון "anti-eraser") device were offered. This device reinstalled the burst phase signal according to several known standards. The client had to turn a switch until the pictures on the screen appeared in natural colours. According to a report in Yediot Aharonoth from January 1979[5] The client had to manipulate the switch every 15 minutes on average in normal conditions, or up to 10 times an hour when special problems occurred, in order to restore natural colours or if the picture suddenly turned black and white.
Based on information retrieved from owners of electricity appliance stores, the aforementioned report estimated that 90% of those who bought colour TV sets also bought the anti-mekhikon device, whose price ranged between 2,500 and 4,000 Israeli lirot (the TV set itself cost 40-50 thousand lirot[6].
The Israeli government had to allow undisrupted colour transmissions by the IBA in two occasions. In November 1977 the IBA had to cover live and in colour the historical visit of the Egyptian president, Anwar El Sadat, to Israel, as this transmission was sent via satellite to stations around the world. In March 1979 the IBA hosted the annual Eurovision Song Contest, and once again had to send the transmission live in colour to stations around the world.
Eventually, the mekhikon idea was proven futile, and the Israeli television abandoned its use gradually at the end of 1979, allowing more and more pre-taped colour transmissions to be received freely.
Public pressure on the issue of colour transmissions mounted, and in 1981 as the Israeli government sought to increase its popularity in light of the approaching general elections, IBA and IETV were allowed to start filming their own regular productions in colour. This process took more than two years and reached the last stretch on 16 February 1983 when the main daily newscast was broadcast in colour for the first time. According to Lapid's book, this first colour newscast was prepared secretly by some "enthusiastic workers" of IBA, in order to avoid industrial actions by the technicians' trade union, who demanded higher salaries for operating colour equipment. Lapid also mentions that the anti-mekhikon system cost IBA 180 million Israeli lira yearly (approximately 64 million Israeli new shekels in 2011 prices).
The IBA stopped filming in black and white on 10 May 1983.
In 1978 the Israeli government appointed a special committee to explore the establishment of a second channel that would not be under the IBA supervision and would be financed by advertising, however the idea of commercial television was rejected by some parties in the ruling coalition. In 7 October 1986, the Israeli minister of Communication ordered the beginning of "experimental transmissions" on a second channel, claiming that unless these transmissions had started, the frequencies would have been used by TV networks in neighbouring countries. These transmissions, which initially included 2–3 hours of video clips every evening, expanded gradually to include a full program lineup. At this stage the IBA was legally responsible for the channel, but in fact it saw it as an unexpected competition, tried to prevent its inauguration, and was reluctant to take responsibility for its broadcasts. In 1986 the Knesset started discussing the law forming the Second Israeli Broadcasting Authority, which was finally approved in 1990. This new body took responsibility for the second channel from this year onwards. From 1990 to 1993 the Second Broadcasting Authority reviewed bids from commercial companies to establish the regular commercial broadcasts of the second channel, which started on 4 November 1993. The second channel was officially handed to three concessionaires, starting the first commercial broadcasts in Israel. Pirated television broadcasts via cables became very popular in the major cities of Israel during the late 80s. These were usually local cable television stations broadcasting illegally from private houses to subscribers, mainly films released on video tapes. These local stations vanished with the introduction of regulated cable television in 1989.
Generally speaking, most television distribution channels in Israel utilize the European Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) family of standards.
Israeli television broadcasts mainly in Hebrew and English. While Hebrew is the common language of communication, numerous shows and series of different genres are bought from English-speaking countries. Unless the target audience is preschool children, subtitle translation is preferred over dubbing, not only for economic considerations. Subtitle translation is often bilingual, the secondary language being either Arabic or Russian. The state-owned Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) has an Arabic department which broadcasts news, talk shows, educational programs for children and Egyptian films on IBA's satellite channel (Channel 33). IBA's English department broadcasts a daily locally produced newscast. Commercial channels are obligated to broadcast a portion of their programs in Arabic and Russian, or alternatively translate programs into these languages. There is also a legal obligation on all channels to translate some of their newscasts into the Israeli Sign Language[7].
In 2002, an Israeli Russian-speaking commercial channel was launched, named Israel Plus. A similar Arabic-speaking channel is due to start broadcasting in January 2012, after several attempts to establish it earlier failed[8] The first bid for the establishment of this channel was published in 1995, but canceled for formal legal problems. In January 2003, a new bid was published[9], but the winning company failed to fulfill its financial obligations[10]. A final modified bid was published on 14 April 2010[11][12], for which eight companies competed. The Halla TV Company was selected in September 2011 and promised to start broadcasting in January 2012.
In August 2009, Israel launched experimental digital broadcast with the intention to phase out the analogue broadcast. Israel saw the official shutdown of the analogue broadcast in June 2011. Currently 5 channels are broadcast.
The following channels are exclusive to the respective cable or DBS company
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