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Bid for heritage TV channel underway
Second Authority for Television and Radio, Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council issue tender guidelines for new channel dedicated to Jewish history, culture
The Second Authority for Television and Radio and the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council announced the tender for the "Israel Heritage Channel," on Sunday Ynet learned.
The future heritage channel will broadcast for 12 hours a day, and feature Jewish culture, history and Zionism-related programming.
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The franchise is offered for 10 years, and the channel is expected to gradually expand to 18 hours of broadcast a day.
The franchisee will have the option of broadcasting on Shabbat and Jewish holidays and will be featured on cable, satellite and Idan+.
Idan+ is a digital terrestrial transmission network, which allows users who choose not to subscribe to any of the cable companies to receive Israel’s free-to-air channels – 1, 2, 10, 33 and 99.
The terms of the tender require bidders to have an initial capital of NIS 24 million (about $6.34 million).
"The channel will feature a wide variety of topics related to the Jewish people's heritage, culture, religion, history and tradition, both in Israel and in the Diaspora, and will give a platform for original Israeli productions in a wide variety of topics," the tender's brief said.
The new channel's airtime will be paid for by advertisements and sponsorships.
"A heritage TV channel, like other designated channels is imperative in a multicultural country like Israel," Communication Minister Moshe Kahlon said. "It will undoubtedly contribute to pluralism in Israeli society."
Nitzan Chen, chairman the Council for Cable TV and Satellite Broadcasting, added: "We hope that the heritage TV channel will fill a programming deficiency, which exists in Israel's commercial television broadcasts and will become a worthy cultural alternative."
