Geula Even
Photo: Gabriel Baharlia
The IPBC is finally going live—Monday at 5
After two years of preparations, delays, negotiations, political backpedaling and major conflict between major players that included Prime Minister and Communications Minister Netanyahu himself, the new Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation is going live at 5pm, Monday.
At exactly 5pm (GMT+3) today, the new Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation
(IPBC) is set to launch Monday night, as veteran anchorwoman Geula Even will host its first live news broadcast.
Following that, journalists Dror Feuer and Anat Korol will host their new daily segment "Original 5," after which Dov Gil-Har will host the economy segment, and lastly, Michal Rabinovich and Yoaz Hendel will host the current affairs segment. Radio presenter Romy Neumark will present the interim news bulletins.
Geula Even (Photo: Raffi Daloya)
At 8pm, Even will return to host the evening news, which will replace the longtime running newscast "Mabat LaHadashot."
Asaf Liberman will then host the new investigative journalism show called Real Time (not to be confused with the US talk show Real Time with Bill Maher).
In the last few days, employees of the IPBC have been working tirelessly to make sure that their broadcasting will start without any problems.
"We're trying to prepare both professionally and emotionally," said Neumark on Sunday. "Everyone's feeling the weight of our position, it adds to the anxiety. We need to remember that we're still at a testing stage, so that even we are curious to see how it'll go.
"It's a process that took a long time,yet this birth was pretty rushed; we've just started the countdown, and the head is begining to crown."
"There's an insane level of excitement here," said Rom Lior, the police reporter for the IPBC news team. "We waited for months, and now it's finally happening. There's a mixture of excitement, pressure and expectation for this day to finally come."
"I know that everyone will pin their hopes on us, and I hope that we will live up to expectations," said IPBC's Digital Department Manager and Depuy CEO Elad Tene. "It's not a trifling matter to—in just one day—absorb 450 employees, who arrive and straight away get into position while some still need to learn how to operate new systems.
"After all the craziness of the Israel Broadcast Assocaition's shut down, people came here with very positive spirits and I hope we'll do a good job."
"We trying the last few loose ends to make sure that everything's working," summarizes Li-or Averbach, head of content at the new Israeli Public Radio of the IPBC. "There were changes right up until the last moment. They delayed us so many times, backpedaling again and again, that in the end—even though we've been preparing for this for the last two years—it still came as a surprise."
(Translated & edited by Lior Mor)
