About Channel 10 (Israel)

Channel 10 (Israel)

Channel 10 (Israel) was an Israeli free-to-air commercial television channel that broadcast from 28 January 2002 until 16 January 2019. In Hebrew it was called Arutz Eser, and it was formerly known as Israel 10, Yisra'el Eser. It operated under the auspices of the Second Authority for Television and Radio, was based in the Tel Aviv area with its headquarters pictured and recorded in Givatayim, and broadcast in Hebrew. It was one of three commercial television channels in Israel alongside Keshet 12 and Reshet 13 in its final period, and for most of its life it was the second commercial channel after Channel 2. Despite its name, it was actually broadcast on channel 14 from 1 November 2017 until its closure, after it moved during the Channel 2 split. It ceased transmissions when it merged with rival network Reshet 13 in January 2019, and its news company, its programmes and many of its staff passed into the merged Channel 13.

Creation as the second commercial channel

Channel 10 was established by the Second Authority as an additional commercial television station in 2002, nine years after Channel 2 had become Israel's first commercial channel in November 1993. The Second Authority issued licences for commercial television by tender and selected operators from the tender responders, and Channel 10 followed the same regulatory model, although its operating structure differed from the three-franchisee rotation that had been used for Channel 2. The channel was intended to add competition to a market that had until then contained only one commercial channel alongside the public services, and its launch ended the position in which Channel 2's franchisees had been the sole commercial broadcasters.

Channel 10 began broadcasting on 28 January 2002. Initially the channel was going to have two franchisees, Israel 10 and Eden Broadcasting. Due to delays, Eden Broadcasting and Israel 10 merged their licence in June 2002, so the channel operated under a unified licence rather than as a week divided between separate programme companies. From the start it offered original drama series, entertainment shows, news shows, lifestyle programmes and foreign programmes. In 2004 the network's operators and licence provisions were reorganised by the Second Authority to revitalise the station, an early sign of the financial difficulty that followed the channel for most of its existence.

News operation and editorial reputation

The channel gained its own news company in 2003, giving it a separate news identity from Channel 2's Israeli News Company. Channel 10 News became the part of the channel that most clearly survived it, because the merged Reshet 13 later took its news resources and rebranded them on air as HaHadashot 13. In its own lifetime the news operation built a reputation for investigative and interview journalism. In 2006, during the Second Lebanon War, Channel 10 News exposed a series of malfunctions in the decision-making process leading to the war. Two American presidents granted Channel 10 exclusive interviews, and during 2011 alone it aired interviews with United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, United Kingdom Foreign Secretary William Hague, Governor Rick Perry, Dennis Ross and French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, among others.

Its main news programme achieved an average audience rating of 6.5 percent in 2011, a figure recorded for its principal bulletin at a time when it competed against the much stronger Channel 2 news. Its current affairs and interview programmes included Hayom Shehaya, The Day That Was, a late-night current events programme, London et Kirschenbaum, a current affairs news show named for its presenters, and Economy at Night, a show about current economic events that was aired during 2009 to 2017. The interview show Intimate, presented by Rafi Reshef, aired from 2015 to 2019 and passed into the merged channel's early period. Those programmes gave Channel 10 a news and talk identity that was distinct from its entertainment schedule.

Original programmes across genres

Channel 10 produced and broadcast original productions in drama, reality, comedy, game shows and satire throughout its seventeen years. Its drama titles included Hostages, an original drama series that later gained an international format life, and Achat Efes Efes, One Zero Zero, an action drama series. Its comedy output included Naor's Friends, featuring comedian Naor Zion, and Gav HaUma, a satire show hosted by Lior Schleien, whose earlier satire programme Matzav HaUma had begun on Reshet's Channel 2 days before continuing on Channel 10. Every Night with Assaf Harel was a late-night talk show on the channel.

Reality programming formed a large part of the schedule. Hisardut, the Israeli version of Survivor, began on Channel 10 before moving to Channel 2 and later to Reshet 13. Baby Boom, an Israeli television series set in a maternity setting, debuted in 2014 on Channel 10. The Winning Couple VIP aired from 2014 to 2017, The Search centred each episode on a person looking for a man who had played a major part in his life, HaDugmaniot, The Models, was a reality documentary series, and Me'usharot, From Riches, was a reality docusoap based on the Real Housewives franchise. The channel also produced and broadcast the Israeli version of The Biggest Loser, in which participants competed to lose the most weight, as well as Beauty and the Geek and The Bachelor. Its game and format output included La'uf al HaMillion, Go For The Million, HaChulia HaChalasha, The Weakest Link, and the Israeli versions of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Deal or No Deal and Jeopardy!. It also broadcast Krav Sakinim, Knife Fight, a local adaptation of the Japanese cooking competition Iron Chef, the comedy improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and, from mid-2013, the Israeli version of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition hosted by Amos Tamam. The veteran consumer affairs and investigative programme Kolbotek was also listed among its investigative output after its long history on Channel 2.

Financial crisis from 2008 to 2012

Financial difficulty was the defining institutional story of Channel 10. In November 2008, when the channel found itself in severe financial straits, the Second Broadcasting Authority gave its owners until 1 March 2009 to refinance its debt. In January 2009 the Knesset's Economic Affairs Committee overturned that decision, a step that meant the channel's shareholders at the time, Yossi Maiman, Ronald Lauder and Arnon Milchan, would have been replaced as operators in February 2010, although regular broadcast schedules remained in place until any replacement. The channel had a debt of 10 million shekels that the Treasury demanded in cash after agreeing to defer the rest of a 28 million shekel debt.

By July 2009 Channel 10 had cost its shareholders 1.3 billion shekels and owed about 103 million more for content, licence fees and royalties. The shareholders stated that they would not pay the debt, Maiman announced that he and the other partners had no intention of paying any more of the channel's bills, and the channel announced that it was cancelling planned productions. In August the directors undertook to invest 19 million shekels in television content, 4 million more than their previous offer, and agreed to invest more money in dramatic productions, while artist guild representatives said they would petition the High Court of Justice if the agreement did not take them into account. In September the Authority suspended its search for a new franchisee pending approval from the Treasury and the Communications Ministry. Until the end of 2011 the fate of the channel remained unknown, and in mid-January 2012 it was given another year to regulate its financial obligations.

Politics, investigation and controversy

The channel's finances became a political controversy in 2011. Channel 10 encountered financial difficulties and asked the Knesset Finance Committee to postpone payment on a tax and royalty debt to the State. The coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government ordered all of its members of Knesset to vote against such a postponement, although such waivers were regularly given in the past. Israeli and international press published claims that the government had done so in retaliation for an exclusive story published by Channel 10 News investigating the way in which Netanyahu financed trips abroad together with his wife. Following that story the State Comptroller opened a formal investigation and Netanyahu filed a libel suit against the channel. The episode was reported internationally as an example of the channel's troubles reflecting a larger political battleground over media independence.

Other controversies arose from individual programmes. In June 2013 an investigative report by the news programme Tzinor Laila, Nightline, described a type of plastic gun whose parts could be 3D printed and assembled, and its journalists smuggled the weapon twice into the Knesset, first into the offices of Miri Regev and second into an event attended by Netanyahu, passing security checks including metal detector scans. The firearm, a Liberator model, was never filled with bullets, and the Prime Minister's office responded that the way of action shown was known to security personnel and that other visible and hidden arrangements existed, while calling the act irresponsible. In 2009 the Vatican complained to the Israeli government about a clip aired on a show hosted by Lior Schleien that allegedly blasphemed Jesus and Mary, and Israel said the broadcaster would publicly apologise. In another incident that year a reality show contestant called his shoe Mohammed, sparking an angry response from local Muslims. In late December 2013 the channel signed a collaboration agreement with China Central Television, enabling the airing of some CCTV programmes on the channel and, in later stages, co-productions and Channel 10 programmes on CCTV channels.

Near closure in 2014 and rescue by RGE

In December 2014 the channel was days away from closing down. On the night of 27 to 28 December 2014 the station ceased regular broadcasting and showed instead a picture of Benjamin Netanyahu with the message that in three days Channel 10 would close and that the Prime Minister, who served as Minister of Communications, refused to find a solution. In January 2015 the station was allowed to function without a new permanent licence for another six months under the authority of the Attorney General, with a permanent decision postponed until after the Knesset elections scheduled for 17 March and the formation of a new government. A major reason quoted for the move was ensuring the expression of a wide range of political opinions on television during the election campaign.

In May 2015 the RGE Media Group of Leonard Blavatnik, Aviv Giladi and Udi Recanati acquired 51 percent of Channel 10. A month afterwards the station received a 15-year licence from the Second Television and Radio Authority Council. That licence appeared to give the channel the long-term security it had lacked since 2008, but it lasted less than four years as a standalone service because the structure of the commercial market changed around it. From 2013 to 2019 the channel gradually transferred its programmes to 16:9 widescreen picture format, which became the aspect ratio of most content by 2016, and on 1 March 2016 its news programmes began broadcasting in widescreen as well, although a few productions still remained in 4:3 and the channel switched its broadcast automatically for them.

Move to channel 14 and the Channel 2 split

On 1 November 2017 Channel 2 shut down and its franchisees moved to separate channels, Keshet to channel 12 and Reshet to channel 13. Channel 10 also moved to a different channel position at the same time. It won channel 14 in the bid for a price of one shekel and 54 agorot and crowdfunded the purchase in a Headstart project. On 19 September 2017, because of the split and the move to channel 14, the channel rebranded to a verbal branding, Eser, meaning Ten, instead of its old numerical branding. It therefore spent its final fourteen months broadcasting as Ten on channel 14, a confusing position that underlined how the 2017 reorganisation had unsettled all of the established commercial brands.

The split was also the cause of the channel's final crisis. The new market contained three full commercial channels, Keshet 12, Reshet 13 and Channel 10 on channel 14, competing for the same advertising revenue that had previously supported two. Less than one year after the split, Reshet and Channel 10's shareholders decided to merge, with the merger to become effective in January 2019.

Merger with Reshet 13 and closure in January 2019

In June 2018, due to financial issues caused by the 2017 Channel 2 split, RGE filed for a merger with Reshet's Channel 13. As part of the merger plan, Channel 10 News, RGE's news company, was to become part of Channel 13, some programmes from Channel 10 would join Reshet 13, the Channel 10 channel would stop broadcasting, and more than 100 employees would be eliminated if the merger went through. In October 2018 Reshet announced that the merger was cancelled. Reshet's owners then reconsidered the merger, and after a long battle with the Second Authority the merger was approved on 8 November 2018 and was scheduled for 16 January 2019. At the time the owners of Reshet and Channel Ten said that the approval was an important and critical step toward regulating the television market in Israel and that merging the activities of Reshet and Channel Ten would allow the merged company to hold on to the majority of its employees and to offer the Israeli viewer better television based on investing in quality and original content.

Channel 10 underwent the merger with Reshet 13 and ceased transmissions on 16 January 2019. The newly merged channel was called Channel 13 and was mutually owned by some of the owners of both networks, and it was launched at a gala event in Tel Aviv attended by 1,500 celebrities and guests. Some programmes from Channel 10 moved over to Reshet 13. For news programmes the merged company took resources from Channel 10's news production company, which subsequently changed its on-air branding to HaHadashot 13, switching away from the Israel Television News Company that had served Channel 2 and then both Keshet and Reshet. The merger reduced the number of commercial channels in Israel to two, Keshet Channel 12 and Reshet Channel 13. Channel 10 had survived repeated debt crises, licence disputes and a near closure in 2014, but it did not survive as a separate channel once the post-2017 market was consolidated, and its most durable legacy was the news operation and programme catalogue that continued inside Channel 13.