Background In 1997, the government approved the report of the Yossi Peled committee, set up to create a proposal to expand and reorganize the public broadcasting system. The report recommended the adoption of a new policy to create a free market for electronic media, based on the principle of an "open sky" for everyone. The committee recommended licenses for direct-to-home satellite television (
Yes), the creation of a new private terrestrial channel (which would become (
Channel 10), and the creation of five or six dedicated cable channels: an Arabic service, a Russian channel, an Amharic channel for Ethiopians in Israel, a channel for Israeli culture (which would become Channel 20, now conservative channel
Now 14), an Israeli music channel (Channel 24) and a
news channel, all of which financed by commercial advertising. In 1998, the Ministry of Communications, by means of the
Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council, did the preliminary selection of the five channels (the Amharic channel was excluded from the initial plan). The decision included Al-Hala TV (Arabic), a news channel, a Russian channel, a music channel (Channel 24) and a cultural heritage channel. However, after the initial preliminary bidding, the plan for the Russian channel was delayed for several years.
Bid In September 2001,
Africa Israel Investments, a financial group headed by
Lev Leviev won the tender for the creation of Israel TV channel in Russian. Established in November 2002, the channel's first CEO was
Yulia Shamalov-Berkovich, who led the company until February 2004. The station began broadcasting on 12 November 2002.
Acquisition In May 2013, Israeli-Russian businessman Alexander Levin purchased control of the channel for NIS 6 million. ==See also==