About Now14

Now14

Now14, known in Hebrew as Achshav 14 and colloquially as Channel 14, is a Hebrew-language commercial television channel and news website in Israel. It broadcasts news, political commentary, satire and talk shows presented from a right-wing and conservative perspective, and its website publishes the same editorial line in written form for online readers. The channel is owned by Jewish Israeli Channel Ltd, whose controlling shareholder is Yitzchak Mirilashvili. Listed in this directory with Jerusalem as its base, the channel moved most of its broadcasts to studios in Modi'in in 2021. In little more than a decade it has travelled an unusual path, from a small dedicated heritage channel that was not permitted to broadcast news to one of the most watched and most argued-about news operations in the country.

Origins in the heritage channel plan

The channel's roots lie in a 1997 government decision. In August 1997 the government approved the report of the Yossi Peled Committee, which had been established to prepare a proposal for expanding and reorganising the public television and radio broadcasting system in Israel. Among the dedicated channels the committee proposed was one aimed at Israeli heritage, alongside an Arabic channel, a music channel, a Russian channel and a news channel that was never established. All of the proposed channels were to be financed by commercial advertising. Hearings on the heritage channel were published on 1 December 1998, but the launch process was delayed repeatedly, and in 2000 the prime minister amended the licensing of the channel. The idea therefore survived on paper for years before any broadcaster was in a position to act on it.

The first tender and the Blue Channel

The tender for the heritage channel was finally 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 a paid heritage channel, known as the Blue Channel, for digital cable and satellite subscribers in 2003, and American businessman Ron Lauder purchased 24 percent of that channel's shares shortly before its broadcasts began. Because the Blue Channel was a paid service that carried no advertising, its operation was possible under the rules of the Ministry of Communications. The Blue Channel closed on 31 March 2006, in accordance with its agreement with the cable and satellite companies, once the licence for the dedicated heritage channel had been received. The venture then stalled: another company entered as a partner in half of the ownership, a conflict broke out between the partners, and in December 2006 the group's win was cancelled on the grounds that the channel was not economically viable.

The second tender and the 2014 launch

In February 2008 the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council announced that it would publish the heritage channel tender again, and the second tender appeared in March 2012. Its terms required the owners to hold equity of 24 million shekels and to provide a bond of three million shekels, with broadcasts financed from advertising, sponsorships and programme sales, and with content covering Israel's heritage, the Jewish religion and the history, culture and tradition of the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora. Yitzchak Mirilashvili was the only bidder, and he won; in August 2013 he received the licence to operate the channel. Broadcasting began on 30 June 2014 as Channel 20, initially under a trial period of several weeks, from studios in Neve Ilan previously used by the Israeli version of Big Brother. The channel was available on the Yes and HOT platforms from the outset, and Ynet housed its live stream.

Early years under a restrictive licence

The licence under which Channel 20 launched prohibited broadcasts unrelated to Israel's heritage, and the restriction shaped a difficult first period. The Council for Cable and Satellite Broadcasting rejected the channel's request to broadcast Hapoel Jerusalem basketball matches. In June 2015 the council fined the channel for broadcasting an election rally, and in August 2015 it imposed another fine for broadcasting news flashes. Only in December 2016 did the council approve news broadcasts, limited to an hour in prime time and up to thirty minutes during the rest of the day. In May 2017 Channel 20 was chosen to operate the Knesset Channel for a decade, although in December of that year the council rejected its proposal after flaws were found in it. The channel nevertheless built a public profile, ranking third among television channels in the Globes brand index for 2017, ahead of Kan 11.

Conflict with the regulator and the Channel 20 law

Relations between the channel and its regulator deteriorated through 2017. In July the council opened a violation procedure after the channel broadcast an interview with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before it held full permission to broadcast news. In August 2017 the council fined the channel 100,000 shekels for refusing to host representatives of the Reform and Conservative movements in its programmes; the channel appealed to the Jerusalem District Court, which rejected the appeal. On 19 December 2017 the channel's chief executive wrote to the council's chairman that its people were preparing to return the broadcast licence and stop broadcasting, arguing that the council was deliberately restricting it. The channel withdrew from the Israeli ratings committee, its employees demonstrated against closure, and management began issuing hearing letters to employees before dismissal. The crisis was resolved legislatively: in January 2018 Communications Minister Ayoob Kara led Knesset discussions aimed at saving the channel, and in February 2018 an amendment to the Second Authority law, widely known as the Channel 20 law, created a category of dedicated small channels entitled to significant regulatory concessions, including the ability to broadcast news without establishing a separate news company. In March 2018 the channel received a small-channel licence and passed to the supervision of the Second Authority for Television and Radio.

Building a news operation

With its legal position secured, the channel built a full news division in March 2018. Boaz Golan, the founder and editor of the 0404 News site, was appointed chief news editor, and on 25 March 2018 the channel began broadcasting news bulletins, with its main newscast at 8 p.m. presented by Dana Somberg. During 2018 and 2019 the channel cooperated with the Galei Yisrael radio station, producing hourly newscasts and broadcasting live from its studios in the morning and afternoon hours. In July 2021 the channel began publishing a monthly printed magazine, first called 20 Magazine and later renamed the Now 14 Magazine, extending the brand beyond television and the website. The newsroom's output was from the start openly positioned for a right-wing audience that its managers argued was underserved by the established channels.

The move to channel 14 and the Now14 identity

On 18 January 2021 the channel won the tender to broadcast on channel 14, a slot left unused after Channel 10 merged with Reshet 13 in January 2019. In August 2021 the channel rented studios in Modi'in-Maccabim-Reut and transferred most of its broadcasts there, and on 28 November 2021 it moved from channel 20 to channel 14 and changed its name to Now 14. The new position on the dial, directly alongside the established news channels 11, 12 and 13, was widely credited inside the channel with making it easier for viewers to find. The channel's programming became primarily news, with religious programming declining as the news orientation strengthened. Its main news edition is broadcast at 19:50, slightly earlier than the flagship bulletins of its main rivals, and has been presented by Maggie Tabibi.

Programmes and presenters

The channel's best-known programme is The Patriots, known in Hebrew as Hapatriotim, a daily current affairs and satire programme that has aired since 2 November 2014. It is built around a main presenter and a rotating panel of commentators who discuss the day's public issues and social media posts, with each speaker given a limited time marked by a buzzer. The programme was presented by Erel Segal from 2014 to 2018 and has been hosted by Yinon Magal since 2019. It broadcasts from Saturday night through Thursday, typically in the late evening, with editions extended during wartime. Other named members of the channel's news staff have included news anchor Erel Segal and journalists Hallel Biton-Rosen, Erez Zadoc and Motty Castel. The same presenters and panellists anchor the written commentary and video content published on the Now14 website, giving the online service the character of the television channel's digital newsroom rather than a separate publication.

Ratings growth and political influence

For most of its first decade the channel was treated by much of the Israeli media industry as a minor player, but its audience grew sharply from 2023. In February 2023 The Jewish Press reported new rating heights for both the nightly news and The Patriots, with the panel show reaching 158,000 viewers on the Sunday night measured. During the Gaza war the growth accelerated: in October 2024 The Patriots drew 343,000 viewers on a night when it beat the principal mainstream outlet, Channel 12, in the ratings, a development reported internationally as the channel became one of Israel's most watched news sources. Media scholar Ayala Panievsky has described Channel 14 as the Israeli answer to Fox News. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has largely avoided interviews with other Israeli channels, gave seven interviews to Channel 14 in the year after October 2023, according to a study by the Seventh Eye media review cited in international reporting, a pattern that supporters present as recognition of the channel's audience and critics present as evidence of political alignment.

Criticism and controversies

The channel's rise has been accompanied by sustained controversy. It is frequently described by critics as politically biased towards the Israeli right and favourable towards Netanyahu, and some Likud members of the Knesset have recommended it to voters on exactly that basis. Individual broadcasts have repeatedly drawn regulatory and public responses. In November 2018 an interview with a man convicted of setting fire to a Jewish-Arab bilingual school in Jerusalem brought widespread condemnation, an apology from the channel and its interviewer, and a violation procedure by the Second Authority. In May 2021 a reporter was fired after remarking on air, following a rocket attack, that it was unfortunate a missile landing on a football field in a large Arab town had not caused mass casualties. In February 2023 a commentator on The Patriots was suspended after remarks about judicial reform protesters. In October 2024 the spokesman of the Israel Defense Forces, Daniel Hagari, filed a formal complaint with the broadcasting authority and the Ministry of Defence accusing the channel of incitement against the army's leadership. Israeli civil rights organisations have also asked the Attorney General to investigate statements broadcast during the Gaza war. The channel's management has generally responded that it abides by the terms of its licence and acts according to the law.

Now14 today

Today Now14 operates as a combined television and online news service: a commercial Hebrew channel broadcasting news and commentary around the clock apart from a weekly Shabbat hiatus, and a news website publishing the channel's reporting, politics and opinion content for readers who follow it online. Its trajectory from a heritage channel forbidden to report the news, through a near-closure and a bespoke change in broadcasting law, to a ratings challenger to channels 12 and 13 is without close parallel in Israeli media. Whether it is viewed as a corrective to a liberal mainstream or as a partisan megaphone, Now14 has become a central and unavoidable part of how political news reaches the Israeli public.