Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation

The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation is the national public broadcaster of Israel. It carries the blanket branding Kan in Hebrew and Makan in Arabic. Its news division, Kan News, is the third biggest brand in Israeli newscasting, after HaHadashot 12 and Channel 13 News.
After multiple delays due to disagreements over its structure raised by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the IPBC officially began its radio and television operations on 15 May 2017, succeeding the Israel Broadcasting Authority as state broadcaster. Its formal goals include promoting expanding knowledge, Israeli culture, and innovation in broadcasting.

History

IBA closure

The Israel Broadcasting Authority had deteriorated in status and function. Public committees found that the deterioration stemmed from a number of factors, including its large number of employees, high salary costs, rigid wage agreements, and the law governing it. The authors of the reports recommended structural changes to the authority and the law.
In July 2013, Minister of Communications Gilad Erdan hired an external consulting firm to examine the future of the IBA. In light of the data, the Landes Committee was established and published its decisions at the beginning of March 2014. According to the agreements reached, the television fee would be cancelled on 1 April 2015, and a new broadcasting entity would be established to replace the IBA.

Legislation

To formulate the necessary legislation, the Knesset set up a committee to discuss the public-broadcasting bill. The committee began its deliberations on 11 June 2014, and quickly conducted a number of meetings to allow the completion of the legislative process by the end of the Knesset session in July. On 9 July, a bill was approved and passed to the Knesset for a second and third reading. The Public Broadcasting Law, which ordered the establishment of the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation and the closure of the Broadcasting Authority, was passed on 29 July 2014. According to the new law, one quarter of the employees of the new body would come from the IBA and educational television.
Section 7 of the law describes the corporation's activity:

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation will broadcast and provide various types of content visually, audio and written, on TV, on radio and on the Internet.
The content provided by the Israel Broadcasting Corporation shall be independent and directed to all citizens and residents of the State of Israel, shall reflect and document the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, its values and the heritage of Israel and give fair, equal and balanced expression to the diversity of views and opinions prevalent in the Israeli public.
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation shall provide news content and content in day-to-day matters in a professional, fair, responsible, independent, critical, impartial and reliable manner, with transparency and with the exercise of journalistic judgment and loyalty to the truth and the obligation to report to the public.
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation will provide diverse content for children and youth, and will promote the creation of educational content for children and youth.
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation shall provide content addressing the diversity of populations in Israeli society, including broadcasts in the Hebrew language, broadcasts in Arabic to the Arab population in Israel, and broadcasts in other languages prevalent in Israeli society.

In the fulfilment of its functions, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation will act:

to expand education and knowledge;
to promote culture, the original Israeli quality work, and Israeli music;
to promote innovation in the fields of broadcast content and distribution and broadcasting technologies.
Recruitment and appointments

In September 2014, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation began operations. Eldad Koblenz was appointed head of the corporation in March 2015. The chairman of the board of directors is Gil Omer. On 7 June 2016, Shlomi Abrhm Globrzon was appointed director of the news department. By November 2016, about 600 employees were recruited to the company. The manpower budget allocated for recruitment enabled the recruitment of 912 employees.

Delays

In July 2016, Israeli prime minister and communications minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Histadrut chairman Avi Nissenkorn agreed to postpone the dissolution of the IBA until early 2018.
In an additional agreement between Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, it was decided to postpone the launch of the new corporation until 30 April 2017, unless it announced that it was ready to broadcast on 1 January 2017. In December 2016, Netanyahu and Kahlon agreed that the corporation would begin broadcasting on 30 April 2017.
In March 2017, Netanyahu worked to close the IBA in the face of Kahlon's opposition. They reached a compromise in which the new corporation was postponed to 15 May, and the news division would operate as a separate corporation. On 11 May, the Knesset approved the split of the news division; however, on 14 May, the High Court of Justice issued a temporary injunction, delaying the split.

Budget

The corporation's construction budget was ₪350 million : ₪120 million for professional equipment, ₪28 million for labor, ₪14 million for operations, ₪128 million for real estate and $60 million for content acquisition.

European Broadcasting Union status

Since the IPBC's launch date was scheduled for 30 April 2017, the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 was scheduled for broadcast on IPBC's Kan 11. The launch date was postponed in mid-April to 15 May, and the contest was broadcast by the IBA.
IPBC's application for European Broadcasting Union membership, replacing IBA as Israel's public broadcaster, was being reviewed by the EBU governing bodies and awaiting approval at the EBU's General Assembly. On 6 July 2017, it was announced that an agreement had been signed between the EBU and the IPBC to allow the corporation to participate in EBU events without full membership.
Israel won the Eurovision Song Contest 2018, and therefore earned the right to host the 2019 edition, which eventually took place in Tel Aviv. However, the EBU warned that the pending plan to make the IPBC's news department a separate broadcaster conflicted with rules requiring member broadcasters to handle both news and entertainment programming. On 18 June 2018, as a high-court decision on the split approached, Netanyahu stated that the Israeli government would comply with EBU rules to protect its hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest. On 7 December 2018, the EBU General Assembly voted unanimously to approve the IPBC's membership application.

Television

Since 15 May 2017, the IPBC broadcasts two television channels on national DVB-T2 transmitters, satellite feed, the HOT cable company, the YES satellite company, smaller pay-TV providers and a free 24/7 livestream on the Internet. In 2018, Kan introduced a 4K resolution broadcast on Channel 511.
Kan's TV channels are:

Kan 11: The corporation's main channel, replacing the IBA's Channel 1 and primarily broadcasting news, current affairs and cultural programs
Makan 33: The Arabic-language channel, broadcasting news and cultural programs and replacing the IBA's Channel 33
Kan Educational: On 15 August 2018, Channel 23 was replaced by a youth channel.
Radio

Kan operates eight radio stations, transferred from the IBA which are broadcast on FM, as DVB-T2 broadcast on Idan+, and on Eutelsat E8WB East Beam satellite. Streams and on-demand programming are available via Kan's website. Some programs have podcasts. Kan also operates a podcast network called Kan Hesketim, formerly called Kan Od.

Name	Logo	Content	Language	Frequencies, MHz	Website
		News, current affairs and sports	Hebrew	94.5, 95.0, 95.2, 95.5
Kan 88		Jazz, blues, electronic music and traffic reports	Hebrew	87.6, 88.0, 88.2, 88.5
		Israeli music, news at the top of most hours	Hebrew	89.7, 97.5, 97.8, 105.5
		Talk and cultural programming	Hebrew	104.7, 104.9, 105.1, 105.3
		Religious broadcasting	Hebrew	90.5, 90.8, 92.5, 100.7
		Classical music and drama, with hourly news	Hebrew	91.3, 97.2, 98.5, 103.7
		Broadcasting to immigrants in their native languages	Amharic, English, Bukharian, Yiddish, Ladino, Spanish, French, Russian, Farsi	100.3, 100.5, 101.3, 101.8
Makan		News and cultural content in Arabic	Arabic	88.8, 92.3, 93.7, 99.3

Former stations:

Kol Yisrael
, formerly Reshet Hei and Kan Farsi – Persian-language station with Persian music and on-demand Farsi news programs.

Seven web-radio channels are dedicated to specific musical genres:

Kan Nostalgia – Nostalgic Israeli music
Kan Yam Tichon – Middle Eastern style Israeli music
Kan Si Haregesh
Kan Ktzat Acheret
Kan 80's-90's
Kan Lahitim
Kan Klasi
Kan Tel Aviv 2019 – Music from the Eurovision Song Contest and beyond. Ceased operating after the Eurovision 2019 final.
Management

Board

The corporation's 12-member public board determines corporate policy, including overall broadcasting policy, approval of broadcasting schedules and budgets, appointment of the general manager, supervision of management and implementation of policy. The board is also responsible for approving the corporation's organisational structure, employment policy, personnel records, and discussing its budget and the CEO's annual work plan.
The appointment of board members is the responsibility of the Minister of Communications. Although board members have a four-year term, the Minister of Communications may allow a member to serve one additional term. The board includes at least six women and at least one Arab member, including the Druze and Circassian populations. On 13 and 16 April 2016, the Minister of Communications and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the members of the board on the recommendation of the search committee headed by Justice Ezra Kama.