About Kan 11

Kan 11

Kan 11 is the main Hebrew-language public television channel of Israel, operated by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, known in Hebrew as Kan and in Arabic as Makan. Headquartered in Jerusalem, in the Jerusalem District, the channel is the corporation's flagship television service and the direct successor to Channel 1, the long-running main channel of the former Israel Broadcasting Authority. It broadcasts free to air across Israel in Hebrew, with a remit centred on news, current affairs, culture, drama and entertainment for the whole population. As a state-owned public service channel rather than a commercial broadcaster, Kan 11 carries no conventional spot advertising of the kind that funds its commercial rivals, and its schedule is shaped by the public purposes set out in Israel's Public Broadcasting Law. Together with its sister services Makan 33 and Kan Educational, it forms the television arm of a corporation that also operates eight radio stations and an extensive digital operation.

Origins in the reform of Israeli public broadcasting

The creation of Kan 11 was the television outcome of a long and contested reform of Israeli public broadcasting. By the early 2010s the Israel Broadcasting Authority, which had run Channel 1 for decades, was widely described in official reviews as having deteriorated in status and function. Committees pointed to its large workforce, high salary costs, rigid wage agreements and the law that governed it, and recommended structural change. In July 2013 the Minister of Communications, Gilad Erdan, commissioned an external examination of the Authority's future, and the Landes Committee that followed published its decisions at the beginning of March 2014. Among the agreements reached were the cancellation of the television fee from 1 April 2015 and the establishment of a new broadcasting entity to replace the Authority. That diagnosis set in motion the legislation from which both the corporation and Kan 11 itself emerged.

Legislation and the creation of the corporation

To turn the reform into law, the Knesset established a committee headed by MK Karin Elharar, which began its deliberations on 11 June 2014 and moved quickly through its meetings. A bill was approved on 9 July 2014 and the Public Broadcasting Law, ordering the establishment of the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation and the closure of the Broadcasting Authority, was passed on 29 July 2014. Under the new law, one quarter of the employees of the new body were to come from the Israel Broadcasting Authority and educational television. Section 7 of the law defines the corporation's task in terms that still describe Kan 11's purpose: to provide content on television, radio and the internet that is independent and directed to all citizens and residents, to reflect Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and its heritage, to give fair and balanced expression to the diversity of views in Israeli society, to supply news in a professional, fair, responsible, independent and reliable manner, and to promote education, culture, original Israeli work, Israeli music and innovation in broadcasting.

Launch on 15 May 2017

Kan 11 launched on 15 May 2017, replacing Channel 1 after the closure of the Israel Broadcasting Authority. The date itself had been repeatedly postponed amid political disagreement over the new corporation's structure, including a compromise under which its news division would have operated as a separate corporation, a split approved by the Knesset on 11 May 2017 but then delayed by a temporary injunction from the High Court of Justice on 14 May. Eldad Koblenz, appointed head of the corporation in March 2015, oversaw the build-up, during which about 600 employees had been recruited by November 2016 within a manpower budget that allowed for 912 posts. When the channel finally went on air it took the number 11 on digital terrestrial television, a position that gave a brand-new broadcaster an immediately recognisable place on the remote control alongside the established commercial numbers.

Headquarters and place within the Kan family

Kan 11 is based in Jerusalem, where the broadcasting corporation has its main building, and it sits at the centre of a wider public media family. Its sister television channels are Makan 33, the corporation's Arabic-language channel, which also launched on 15 May 2017 as the replacement for the former Channel 33, and Kan Educational, the children's and youth channel that replaced Israeli Educational Television on 15 August 2018. On radio, the corporation operates eight stations transferred from the former Authority, including Kan Bet for news and current affairs, Kan Gimel for Israeli music, Kan Tarbut for culture, Radio Makan in Arabic and the classical service Kan Kol HaMusica. Kan 11's news comes from Kan News, the corporation's news division, which the corporation describes as the third biggest brand in Israeli newscasting after the news operations of the commercial channels 12 and 13. That shared newsroom supplies television, radio and digital output from a single journalistic operation.

News and current affairs

News and current affairs form the backbone of Kan 11's public remit. The channel carries the corporation's television news bulletins and current affairs programming in Hebrew, produced to the standard set out in the Public Broadcasting Law, which requires news to be provided in a professional, fair, responsible, independent, critical, impartial and reliable manner, with transparency and loyalty to the truth. Unlike the commercial channels, whose news companies grew out of the old Channel 2 system, Kan's news division was built as part of the new corporation, with an establishment budget of 160 million shekels and original plans to employ around 450 journalists, photographers and production staff. The division provides content not only to Kan 11 but also to the corporation's radio stations, website and social media pages, so that a story reported for the evening television audience is also shaped for radio listeners and for online readers throughout the day.

Drama, entertainment and original production

Beyond news, Kan 11 has built its reputation on original Israeli production. The channel has produced a range of in-house series and Israeli adaptations of international formats, including an Israeli version of The Chase and an adaptation of Carpool Karaoke. Its best-known drama internationally is Tehran, known in Hebrew as Teheran, an espionage series created for the channel about a Mossad agent operating undercover in Iran. After premiering in Israel in June 2020, the series was acquired by Apple TV+, becoming one of the most visible examples of a Kan 11 commission reaching a global streaming audience. At home, the channel's popular comedy includes Kupa Rashit, known in English as Checkout, a supermarket-set sitcom that has become one of the channel's signature entertainments and is regularly scheduled for major national moments such as election night. Together, these commissions illustrate the corporation's statutory aim of promoting original, quality Israeli work rather than filling the schedule with acquired programming.

Sport, Eurovision and national events

Kan 11 is also Israel's home for major shared national broadcasts. As the channel of Israel's member of the European Broadcasting Union, it carries the Eurovision Song Contest. The corporation's path to full EBU membership shaped its early years: an agreement in July 2017 allowed it to participate in EBU events before membership was confirmed, Israel won the contest in 2018 with Netta Barzilai, and after the government confirmed it would comply with EBU rules requiring a member to handle both news and entertainment, the EBU General Assembly voted unanimously on 7 December 2018 to approve the corporation's membership. Israel then hosted the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv. The channel's broadcast of the 2018 Eurovision final recorded exceptionally high viewing, and sport has produced similar peaks, including the 2018 FIFA World Cup final. In 2018 the corporation also introduced a 4K resolution broadcast on Channel 511 that was used for World Cup coverage.

Distribution and digital services

Kan 11 reaches viewers through almost every route available in Israel. Since 15 May 2017 the corporation's channels have been broadcast on national DVB-T2 transmitters through the Idan+ platform, by satellite, on the HOT cable company and the YES satellite company, through smaller pay-television providers such as Cellcom TV and Partner TV, and as a free 24/7 livestream on the internet, although some programming is limited outside Israel. The channel is presented in high definition, with its picture format listed as 2160p ultra-high definition downscaled to 1080i and to 16:9 576i for the standard-definition feed. Digital viewing is centred on the corporation's website and apps and on Kan Box, the video-on-demand service first released in 2022, which brings together programming from the Kan and Makan television and radio services, including archive material originally produced for the former Broadcasting Authority, and which received a significant update in January 2026.

Governance and public accountability

Kan 11 operates within a governance structure designed to keep a state-funded broadcaster accountable without making it a government mouthpiece. The corporation is overseen by a 12-member public board that determines corporate policy, including overall broadcasting policy, approves schedules and budgets, appoints the general manager and supervises management. Board members are appointed by the Minister of Communications on the recommendation of a search committee, serve four-year terms that may be extended once, and the board must include at least six women and at least one Arab member, including representation of the Druze and Circassian populations. The chief executive, appointed by the board for a four-year term that may be extended, acts as chief editor of broadcasts and is responsible for routine management and annual work plans. Golan Yochpaz has served as chief executive since 2022, following the founding leadership of Eldad Koblenz, who established the infrastructure for the launch.

Role in Israeli television today

Today Kan 11 occupies a distinctive place in a small but intensely competitive television market. It is one of Israel's six free-to-air channels, sitting alongside the commercial services Keshet 12, Reshet 13 and Now 14 and its own public sisters. Its viewing share is smaller than that of the leading commercial entertainment channel, which is expected for a public service schedule weighted towards news, current affairs, culture and documentary, but its importance is measured differently: it is the channel Israelis turn to for Eurovision, for World Cup football free to air, for election-night coverage without a commercial agenda, and for original Hebrew drama and comedy made under a statutory duty to reflect the diversity of the country. From its Jerusalem headquarters, Kan 11 continues the line of Israeli public television that began with Channel 1, but under a new corporation, a new law and a digital-first distribution model that its predecessor never had.