Hadashot 12 was founded in 1993 with
Channel 2, which became one of its most-recognized symbols. The company's news is primarily viewed in Israel. It expanded beyond the evening news bulletin, and began airing programmes such as
First Edition (מהדורה ראשונה, Mahadora Rishona),
Six With (שש עם, Shesh im),
Meet The Press (פגוש את העיתונות, Pgosh et HaItonut),
Friday Studio (אולפן שישי, Ulpan Shishi) and
The Economic Programme (תוכנית חיסכון, Tochnit Chisachon). The company faced competition from other TV channels, Internet websites, and radio.
1993–1997 Channel 2's three franchisees were Reshet, Keshet and
Telad. The company was founded to produce Channel 2's news broadcasts. Its first news broadcast, on 4 November 1993 from Jerusalem Capital Studios, was less than five minutes long and was anchored by
Ya'akov Eilon. As a result of Channel 2,
Channel 1 decided to move
Mabat to 8:00 pm, renovate its
Romema studios, create new introductions and extending
Mabat to 50 minutes. Eilon Shalev was the company's first CEO. When the company was founded, Shalom Kital said that instead of hiring Channel 1 reporters, he would hire radio and newspaper reporters. The first reporters were
Ya'akov Eilon,
Miki Haimovich, Guy Zohar, Dana Weiss,
Gideon Sa'ar, Rina Matsliah,
Oshrat Kotler, Emanuel Rozen and Aharon Barnea. After several years, reporters from Channel 1 (including Gadi Sukenik and Rafi Reshef) and (later)
Channel 10 were hired. Channel 2's news broadcasts became popular, and attracted a larger audience than Channel 1 in May 1994. The competing channels covered terrorist attacks as breaking news, with uncensored depictions of body parts. Despite their competition, both channels simulcast the signing of the
Israel–Jordan peace treaty at the end of October 1994 and
Yitzhak Rabin's funeral. Rabin was
assassinated on 4 November 1995, two years after Channel 2 was founded. Dov GilHar (a Channel 2 reporter at the time) was a few meters away from the assassination, immediately sent a message to Roni Daniel and Aharon Barnea, and the company went into emergency mode. Yoram Arbel broke into Channel 2's broadcast from its
Telad studios, and told viewers about the assassination; Guy Zohar anchored the breaking story from a studio in Tel Aviv. Moshe Nusmaum announced the assassin's name a few minutes after
Ya'akov Eilon replaced Guy Zohar in Jerusalem Capital Studios. After the announcement of Rabin's death, Rafi Reshef anchored the broadcast all night. CEO Nachman Shai understood that the competition hurt Channel 2 and Channel 1, and asked
Israel Broadcasting Authority CEO Mordechai Kirshenbaum to share resources. Kirshenbaum refused, and Channel 2's viewership increased. Six weeks after Rabin's death, the company bought amateur photographer Roni Kempler's videotape of the assassination for and re-aired it. The company prepared to compete with Channel 1 during the
1996 election, its first. Reporters were placed at all party headquarters, and the prediction-poll results were announced at 10 pm; both channels were wrong. In 1997,
Haim Yavin was replaced as anchor of Channel 1's
Mabat by Geula Even.
Ya'akov Eilon and
Miki Haimovich anchored Channel 2's evening news. The company built new studios, and
two CH-53 helicopters crashed; seventy-three soldiers were killed. Both channels interrupted their broadcasts with the breaking news. A photographer accidentally filmed a soldier's bag with his name on it, painfully informing the soldier's family of his death.
1998–2002 Television audience measurement began in Israel on 15 February 1998, and the Israel Audience Research Board (IARB) began including the company's broadcasts on 5 July of that year. Channel 2's evening news received a 30–40 percent share of the audience, and other programs also had fairly high ratings. That year, the company launched a website with news updates, information about the company's programs, anchors, reporters and commentators and links to the desks, live video streams and featured items. The website was up for three years. In 1999, the company covered its second
election; its poll (conducted by Mina Tzemakh and the Dahaf Institution) correctly predicted the prime minister, and the company built a special studio for the telecast. That April, Haim Yavin returned to anchoring Channel 1's
Mabat. Channel 1 began airing
19:30, an early election-news programme; Channel 2 responded with
World Order, anchored by Arad Nir. In December 1999, a Millennium Studio with
holographics was built. The studio was demolished on 2 January 2000. During the early 2000s, when Channel 2 was Israel most-watched, anchors changed and reporters joined. They included Carmel Lutzati,
Shelly Yachimovich, Oded Ben-Ami (2000),
Danny Kushmaro, Ehud Ya'ari (2001),
Amnon Abramovich, Oren Weigenfled (2003) and Lilach Sonin (2004–2013). In 2000, the company moved to Kiriyat HaTikshoret in Neve Ilan. The evening news was extended from 30 to 45 minutes, and to an hour in 2003; the three-minute commercial break at the end of the programme became 12 minutes of interspersed commercials. The
Second Intifada began in 2000, and the company prepared to cover news at odd hours in live reports from the field. The
Ministry of Communication planned to establish a
dedicated 24-hour news channel; bidding began, and
Ya'akov Eilon (who left to join the competing company Hadashot Israel) was replaced by Miki Haimovich. Hadashot Israel began producing Channel 10's news programmes. Plans for the news channel faded, and Eilon left Hadashot Israel to found Channel 10's independent news company in 2003. Channel 10's news, which aired at 19:00, was moved to 20:00 to compete with Channel 2's news. Channel 2 began using
news tickers, and Himovich and
Dan Shilon anchored coverage of the
2001 Israeli prime ministerial election. After the election, Haimovich and Gadi Sukenik began anchoring the evening news. The
HaShidur HaMefutzal incident occurred on 2 March 2002, triggering criticism of the company. At the end of the year, Haimovich announced that she was moving to Channel 10.
Yonit Levi and
Oshrat Kotler vied to anchor the news with Sukenik; Shalom Kital's chose the inexperienced, 25-year-old Levi, who anchored her first programme on 22 December 2002.
2003–2006 Ilan Ramon was scheduled to return to earth after 15 days in space as Israel's first astronaut at the beginning of 2003, and Channel 2 prepared a special broadcast to commemorate
Space Shuttle Columbia's arrival; Ramon's father was invited to the studio. The shuttle
exploded while reentering the atmosphere, and Ramon's father received news of the tragedy in the studio. Arad Nir, who reported live from
Texas, said in 2009 that it was the hardest broadcast of his career. At the beginning of 2003, Gadi Sukenik and
Yonit Levi anchored the evening news for the company's fourth
election. During the
Iraq War, the company replaced the programme's graphics and briefly cooperated with the internet portal
MSN to present its featured video articles. In 2005, weatherman Danny Roup announced his move to Channel 10. Channel 1 weatherman Danny Deutch moved to Channel 2 to replace Roup. In April,
the Second Authority for Television and Radio bid for two Channel 2 franchisees.
Keshet and
Reshet won the bid, and Telad stopped broadcasting and funding the news company. The company's deficit increased to . At the end of August, after the
Israeli disengagement from Gaza, the company changed its graphics for the third time since 2000. The graphics (made for the event) aired until 27 August, when they were replaced by new graphics. That year, Channel 10's audience began to surpass Channel 1's. Shalom Kital remained as CEO. The company changed studios for a week in 2006 (using the slogan "Israel chooses 2"), purchased a 3D graphics system and collaborated with
Reshet's satirical
Mishak Makhur for its fifth
election broadcast. That year, a
Knesset committee chose it to operate the
Knesset Channel. In June, the
Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council gave the company a 10-year contract for the Knesset Channel.
2007 After 12 years as CEO, Shalom Kital resigned and was replaced by executive editor Avi Weiss. On 1 August, Gadi Sukenik anchored his last evening news programme;
Yonit Levi anchored the news alone, replaced occasionally by Danny Kushmaro. Channel 10 morning-show anchor
Tamar Ish-Shalom became a London correspondent in October 2007, and then an anchor. She moved to Channel 10's evening news in 2011. Channel 10 evening-news editor Gut Suderi replaced Boaz Stembler and
Liran Dan in September. Stembler then edited
Friday Studio before resigning. In October, the company spent on a new studio. At the beginning of the month,
Friday Studio anchor Aharon Barnea announced that he would move to Washington, D.C. as a correspondent.
Yair Lapid anchored
Friday Studio until January 2012.
2008–2012 At the beginning of April 2008, the company announced an agreement with
El Al to produce a 30-minute news programme for El Al passengers. On 17 April of that year, it began broadcasting on the
Keshet and Reshet websites. That month, the company began producing a daily news bulletin at 13:00 anchored by Oren Wiegenfeld. In September, it introduced a webpage on
Keshet and Reshet websites. In 2009, the company offered YouTube users an opportunity to ask election contestants questions, which the contestants answered on a special broadcast. For the
2009 election broadcast, anchored by
Yonit Levi, the company collaborated with
Keshet's satirical show
Eretz Nehederet.
Channel 9 ended its six-and-a-half-year agreement with the company at the beginning of March 2009, and the latter discontinued some of its programmes due to budget cuts. A world weather forecast on some programmes attracted more advertising revenue.
Young Edition, news for young people anchored by Gidon Oko, premiered in May 2011.
Election System a daily programme anchored by Udi Segal and Dana Weiss with in-depth coverage of the
2013 elections, premiered in November 2012. The following month,
Six With and
Meet The Press were cancelled and the evening news was shortened to 45 minutes as a result of in budget cuts. After ten days, a change in the Second Authority law enabled the company to reduce the cuts to .
2013–2016 On the 2013 election night, the company again collaborated with Keshet's
Eretz Nehederet and Yonit Levi anchored the broadcast. It was the most-watched programme since audience measurements began. In May 2013, Dany Kushmaro was chosen to anchor
Friday Studio; Dana Weiss was chosen to anchor the weekend news, and Rina Matzliah began anchoring
Meet The Press. The company collaborated with
Arutz HaYeladim in October of that year to produce
Young Edition as a 20-minute daily program with the weekly Channel 2 Friday edition. The company celebrated its 20th anniversary the following month, airing promos with important events it reported, and replaced its midnight bulletin with a nightly news programme. Yonit Levi went on
maternity leave, and was replaced by Keren Marciano and Danny Kushmaro. The average audience measurement was 29.4 percent during
Operation Protective Edge in July 2014, the company's best July ever and its strongest month in 15 months. The channel had its first debate between the prime-ministerial candidates before the
2015 elections on 26 February, receiving a 30.6-percent audience share. On election night, the evening news was broadcast from a transparent studio on the
Knesset plaza; the programme was watched by 37.7 percent of the audience.
2017–present On 9 May 2017, the
Israel Broadcasting Authority announced that it would cease broadcasting at the end of the week. The channel was replaced with
Kan, on channel 11. At the time, Channel 2 operated on channel 22; the Educational Television Service operated on channel 23, the Sports Channel on 55, the Knesset channel on 99, and Channel 10 on 10. The major Israeli channels soon re-formed and moved to other channels. Keren Marciano went on maternity leave, and Dana Weiss anchored the evening news with
Yonit Levi and Danny Kushmaro. Shortly before Channel 2 split, the company rebranded itself as "The News (
HaHadashot)" and its content moved to
Keshet 12 and
Reshet 13 in
HD. During construction of a new studio in
Neve Ilan, broadcasts began originating from a temporary studio at the same location on 25 September 2017. Broadcasting from the new studio began on 1 November, after the Channel 2 split. Most broadcasts aired on both channels, except for
The Economic Program (aired on Keshet 12) and
Good Night Israel and
Meet The Press (aired on Reshet 13). To cover breaking news, the channels can join the Hadashot 12 broadcast or remain with regular programming. On 31 October 2017, Channel 2's last evening news programme aired; Danny Kushmaro introduced the company's new studio, and Yonit Levi was in the temporary studio. The following day, Hadashot 12 began broadcasting on Keshet 12 and Reshet 13. The company lost its contract for the
Knesset Channel to Channel 10 on 1 August 2018. ==Notable anchors==