About Now 14

Now 14

Now 14, colloquially known as Channel 14, is a Hebrew-language commercial television channel owned by Jewish Israeli Channel Ltd and headquartered in Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut, in Israel's Central District. It broadcasts news, political commentary, satire and talk shows presented from a right-wing, conservative perspective, alongside a declining amount of religious and heritage programming that reflects its origins. The channel launched on 30 June 2014 as Channel 20, a dedicated heritage channel devoted to Jewish history, religion, culture and tradition, and spent its first years fighting regulators for the right to broadcast news at all. A change in the law in 2018 freed it to become a news channel, and on 28 November 2021 it moved from number 20 to number 14 and rebranded as Now 14, taking the slot left vacant when Channel 10 merged into Reshet 13. Its controlling shareholder is businessman Yitzchak Mirilashvili, and its website is c14.co.il.

An idea from the 1990s: the heritage channel proposal

Now 14 began as a policy idea long before it became a channel. In August 1997 the government approved the report of the Yossi Peled Committee, established to prepare proposals for expanding and reorganising Israel's public broadcasting system. Alongside an Arabic channel, a Russian channel that became Channel 9, a music channel that became Channel 24 and a news channel that was never established, the committee proposed a channel devoted to Israeli heritage, all of them to be financed by commercial advertising. Hearings on the dedicated channels were published on 1 December 1998, but the launch of the heritage channel was delayed repeatedly, and in 2000 the prime minister amended its licensing. The concept, a channel covering the heritage of Israel, the Jewish religion and the history, culture and tradition of the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora, waited more than a decade and a half for a viable operator, a delay that shaped the determined, embattled culture the channel later displayed.

Two tenders and a false start

The first tender for the heritage channel was published in July 2005. The Hirsch Media Group, owned by businessman Shlomo Ben-Zvi, was the only bidder and won. Ben-Zvi had already established Arutz HaKlat, the Blue Channel, a paid heritage channel for cable and satellite subscribers in 2003, and American businessman Ron Lauder purchased 24 percent of its shares shortly before its broadcasts began. The Blue Channel closed on 31 March 2006 under its agreement with the cable and satellite companies when the dedicated licence was received, but after winning the tender a conflict broke out between the partner companies behind the free channel, it was never established for lack of economic viability, and the group's win was cancelled in December 2006. The Council for Cable and Satellite Broadcasting announced a second tender in February 2008 and published it in March 2012, requiring owners' equity of 24 million shekels and a bond of three million shekels. Yitzchak Mirilashvili was the only bidder, won, and in August 2013 received the licence to operate the channel.

Launch as Channel 20 in June 2014

Channel 20 started broadcasting on 30 June 2014 after a trial period of several weeks. The slot had previously been broadcast from the Neve Ilan studios used by the Israeli version of Big Brother. The channel was available on YES and HOT from the outset, with the possibility of terrestrial carriage on the Idan+ platform, and Ynet hosted its live stream. Its licence was narrow: broadcasts had to cover topics related to Israel's heritage, and the channel was prohibited from broadcasting material unrelated to that purpose. The Council for Cable and Satellite Broadcasting rejected its request to broadcast Hapoel Jerusalem basketball matches, fined it in June 2015 for broadcasting an election rally in violation of its licence and fined it again in August that year for broadcasting news flashes. From the beginning, therefore, Channel 20's defining struggle was not for audience but for permission, as a channel founded for heritage programming pressed against the limits of a licence that forbade the news its audience wanted.

The fight for news between 2016 and 2017

The pressure built step by step. In December 2016 the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council approved Channel 20 to broadcast news, up to an hour in prime time and up to 30 minutes during the rest of the day. On 4 May 2017 Channel 20 was chosen to operate the Knesset Channel for a decade, but on 7 December the Council rejected its proposal after flaws were found in it. In July 2017 the Council opened a violation procedure after the channel broadcast an interview with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before it had full permission to broadcast news. In August 2017 it fined the channel 100,000 shekels for refusing to host representatives of Reform and Conservative Judaism in its programmes, a fine upheld when the channel's appeal was rejected by the Jerusalem District Court. By December 2017 the conflict reached crisis point: the channel's chief executive wrote that its people were preparing to return the licence and stop broadcasting, its employees demonstrated against closure, and management began issuing hearing letters to employees before dismissal.

The Channel 20 Law and the move to the Second Authority

The channel was saved by legislation. During January 2018 the Minister of Communications, Ayoob Kara, led Knesset discussions aimed at saving Channel 20 that broadened into debate about broadcast regulation in Israel as a whole. In February 2018 an amendment to the Second Television and Radio Authority Law was approved, known as the Channel 20 Law although it also applied to other channels. It allowed holders of dedicated cable and satellite licences to receive a dedicated small channel licence from the Second Authority, provided at least 51 percent of broadcasts, or of income, served the channel's special purpose. In return a small channel received significant concessions compared with the main licences: relief from local production and high-quality production obligations, from minimum content investment and from Arabic-language obligations, and crucially the possibility of broadcasting news without establishing a separate news company. In March 2018 Channel 20 received its small broadcast licence and moved from the Cable and Satellite Council to the supervision of the Second Authority.

Building a news channel from March 2018

With permission secured, Channel 20 built a news operation quickly. In March 2018 Boaz Golan, founder and editor of the 0404 News site, was appointed chief news editor, a news division was established, and on 25 March 2018 the channel began broadcasting its news bulletins, with its main newscast at eight in the evening presented by Dana Somberg. The channel criticised the ratings measurement system for lacking digital measurement, a complaint it had signalled by withdrawing from the Israeli ratings committee the previous December. In 2018 and 2019 it collaborated with the Galei Yisrael radio station, producing hourly newscasts and broadcasting live from the radio studios in morning and afternoon hours. In July 2021 it extended its brand into print with a monthly magazine, first called 20 Magazine and later renamed Now 14 Magazine. The heritage obligation remained in its licence, but the channel's centre of gravity had moved decisively to news and commentary, and religious programming steadily declined as the news schedule grew.

The move to channel 14 and the Now 14 rebrand

The channel's position on the dial changed as dramatically as its content. On 18 January 2021 it won the tender to broadcast on channel 14, a slot that had remained unused since Channel 10, its previous occupant, merged with Reshet 13 in January 2019, and it did so without receiving a different broadcasting licence from its previous one. In August 2021 the channel rented studios in Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut and transferred most of its broadcasts there, giving Now 14 its present headquarters away from the Tel Aviv media quarter where its competitors cluster. On 28 November 2021 Channel 20 moved to channel 14 and changed its name to Now 14, Achshav 14 in Hebrew, although it remains universally known as Channel 14. Placement at number 14, directly after the public channel 11 and the commercial channels 12 and 13, gave a former niche service the visibility of a mainstream news channel and completed its journey from the margins of the programme guide.

Programming and The Patriots

Now 14 primarily features news programming and political talk, with occasional religious programming. Its main news show is broadcast at 19:50 Israel time and has been presented by Maggie Tabibi. Its most popular programme is The Patriots, a panel show in which journalists and activists discuss the issues of the day and comment on social media posts, with each contributor given a limited time to speak before a buzzer sounds when the time expires. The format, hosted in its best-known form by Yinon Magal with regular panellists drawn from right-wing journalism and activism, captures the channel's method: argument as entertainment, delivered by presenters who make no claim to neutrality. Morning, midday and evening news and talk programmes fill the rest of the schedule, a full news day that would have been illegal under the channel's original heritage licence. Coverage by other Israeli and international media has frequently compared the channel's opinion-led model to American conservative talk television, a comparison its supporters treat as a compliment.

Ownership, regulation and criticism

Now 14 is operated by Jewish Israeli Channel Ltd, with Yitzchak Mirilashvili as controlling shareholder, the same businessman whose company won the second heritage tender and received the licence in 2013. It broadcasts nationally on digital terrestrial television at channel 14 in 720p high definition, on cable and satellite platforms and through its website. The channel is often defined as politically biased towards the Israeli right and favourable towards Benjamin Netanyahu, and Likud Knesset members have recommended watching it as a right-wing channel for a right-wing audience, which its management presents as serving viewers who felt unrepresented by the older channels. It has also faced sustained criticism, including a September 2024 letter from three Israeli human rights organisations concerning statements broadcast during the Gaza war, and earlier controversies over individual broadcasts that led to presenters being fired or suspended and to advertiser protests. That polarised reception is inseparable from its identity: Now 14 is simultaneously a ratings success and the most contested channel in Israel.

Now 14 today

Today Now 14 is a fixture of Israel's main channel line-up, routinely listed among the country's most viewed channels and at times challenging Reshet 13 for second place behind Keshet 12 in prime time. Its trajectory is unlike any other Israeli channel: proposed in 1997, licensed twice, launched in 2014 as a heritage service forbidden to report news, fined for doing so, threatened with closure, rescued by a law named after it, and reborn in 2021 at number 14 as an openly conservative news channel. From its studios in Modi'in it offers the right of Israeli politics a television home built in its own image, with The Patriots as its emblem and a main bulletin scheduled ten minutes before its rivals. Whether celebrated as pluralism or criticised as partisanship, Now 14 permanently changed the balance of Israeli television, ending the era in which news viewers had no channel that spoke from their side of the argument.