Not only Eurovision would get the ax under government efforts to end public broadcasting
As Communications Minister Karhi resurrects his plan to shut down Kan, industry experts warn it will end participation in the annual songfest and slash original Hebrew content


For most Israelis, it would be nearly impossible to imagine a world in which the Jewish state doesn’t compete in the annual Eurovision Song Contest. But if recently revived legislation to shutter, sideline or drastically slash the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, or Kan, is passed in the Knesset, legions of Israeli fans will soon be left bereft.
Since the day it was established, the Kan public broadcaster has come under attack.
Successive lawmakers and ministers in right-wing governments have sought over the past eight years to exert greater control over or shut down entirely the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, which operates several TV networks, a number of radio stations and a sizable digital presence.
In recent weeks, as the coalition attempts to revive some of its contentious prewar legislation, efforts to change the face of Kan as we know it have returned to the forefront. Last month, the Knesset passed in a preliminary reading 49-46 a bill mandating the network be either privatized or closed – either of which would end public broadcasting in Israel.
At the same time, ministers also voted last month to advance legislation that would give the government direct — instead of indirect — control over the IPBC’s budget. Yet another item of legislation discussed this month would demand Kan submit an annual report to the Knesset Economics Committee on its activities, with its heads summoned to a hearing if the members have complaints about content.
The bills’ future remains uncertain, amid both coalition infighting and distaste among some minority elements in the government for pursuing contentious legislation during wartime. But Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi – who has made his promise to close Kan a cornerstone of his plans since taking office two years ago – has not backed down from his efforts to shut down the public broadcaster entirely, which observers say would have a vast ripple effect on Israeli media, film and society overall.

In addition to putting approximately 1,000 employees out of a job, industry insiders say Karhi’s planned moves would harm democracy, stifle the free press in Israel, end Israel’s membership in the European Broadcasting Union and drastically shrink the creation of quality scripted original programming in Hebrew.
“Israeli TV series [produced by Kan] bring us honor and prestige in the world,” actress Naomi Levov, who has appeared in a number of Kan productions, told a Knesset hearing on Wednesday discussing the slate of legislation. “Just now the series ‘The Lesson’ was named [by the New York Times] as one of the best shows in the world of 2024.”
Levov added that “for me, for us as a country it is a badge of honor for creativity, for quality… this is a body that needs to be preserved.”
The effect on the news industry of shuttering Kan has been at the forefront of discussions – with the Union of Journalists in Israel, the Foreign Press Association, the Israel Communication Association and the Attorney General’s Office all warning of harm to democracy, to freedom of the press, and to the ability to produce news content free of commercial considerations.
Michal Gera Margaliot, director of the UJI, denounced the move as “part of a wide, orchestrated plan to weaken and trample the free press in Israel” during a Knesset hearing earlier this month. The Attorney General’s Office said the legislation appears to be part of a government plan “to take control of the media and the media market, in a way that contradicts basic democratic values,” while the FPA said the activity appeared “vindictive and politically motivated.”
End of the Eurovision era?

The cultural impacts of recent measures are expected to be widely felt.
For starters, Israel needs to maintain an independent public broadcaster in order to remain a member of the European Broadcasting Union, to which it has belonged since 1957. Its standing in the EBU is what enables it to not just broadcast, but also participate, in the annual Eurovision Song Contest.
In a letter this week to the Knesset Economics Committee ahead of its hearing, EBU director Noel Curran warned that shutting or privatizing Kan “would not only jeopardize Israel’s media landscape but could also have significant ramifications for the country’s democratic foundations and international reputation,” noting that every single country in Europe maintains a public broadcaster.
Only countries with independent public broadcasters that air both current affairs and entertainment programming are eligible to be members of the EBU, and therefore to take part in the Eurovision. The kitschy music contest remains popular in Israel and, in particular amid the sustained attacks on Israel’s participation this year, many in the country viewed it as more important than ever to participate and have their presence felt.
Kan also holds the exclusive rights, via the EBU, to broadcast the 2026 World Cup; if the network is privatized or shut down, it is not clear how and if the matches will air in Israel.
“Privatizing the IPBC would jeopardize this relationship and almost certainly lead to Kan’s exclusion from our Union,” added Curran, “diminishing the nation’s role in key events and restricting Israeli citizens access to such content.”
The IPBC was itself born of a lengthy political battle over public television in Israel. It hit airwaves in 2017 after years of government efforts to alter the operations of its predecessor, the Israel Broadcasting Authority.
Ever since it went on the air, right-wing lawmakers have sought greater control, including a scuppered move to split the news division from the rest of the content — which was shelved after Israel won the 2018 Eurovision and the EBU made its position clear.

Who needs more reality TV?
The central bill under consideration by the Knesset stipulates that the government will issue a tender seeking a buyer for Kan’s TV broadcasts, and that if a buyer cannot be found, the broadcaster will be shuttered completely within two years and its intellectual property will revert to the government. All of IPBC’s radio networks will also be shut in two years under the terms of the bill, except for the popular Reshet Bet, which will also be put up for sale.
Kan currently operates its main broadcast channel, Kan 11, as well as Makan 33 in Arabic, the Kan Educational channel with children’s programming, eight radio stations, and its website and many digital platforms, including podcasts, apps and online videos.
Karhi has long presented his goal as one of media diversification and a free market, seeking to remove the government from any role in the industry. Speaking in the hearing on Wednesday, the minister maintained that “the private market is choked by too many series, and the public broadcaster is not public and at times harmful.”
The minister said that his “vision” for public broadcasting is to continue funding “original programming and Israeli content” without news or current events, maintaining Kan’s Educational network as well as five of its radio stations.
The main legislation seeking to shutter the network, however – which was originally written by Karhi before he was a minister, but resubmitted by Likud MK Tally Gotliv as a private member’s bill – seeks only to sell the entire network to a commercial buyer. It was not immediately clear if Karhi intends to submit a new bill for consideration or vastly rewrite the legislation that has already passed an initial reading.
Industry insiders say that another fully commercialized network is unlikely to be able to survive in the small Israeli market, and would never be able to produce the level of original Hebrew programming that has emerged from Kan over the years.
Channels 12 and 13, the two main commercial networks in Israel, largely offer a slate of reality programming that is cheap to produce and brings in large audiences, but offers little added value to a discerning audience, they say.
“There is nobody that will buy” Kan, according to a letter from the Film Editor’s Guild submitted to the Knesset Committee. “Channel 13 has been on the shelf for years… fighting for its survival and until recently there was nobody who would take it.”
Even if a buyer could be found, the guild added, such a move “would turn it into the same as all the other commercial networks – a channel of soft lifestyle and current affairs programs based on paid product placements and offering the public promotional content, little quality and a lot of TV shows purchased from overseas.”
Were Kan to become a commercial network, “documentary programming that explores Israeli history, dramas that bring the diversity of Israeli society to the screen, and online content that expresses the voices of Israelis would be replaced by purchased content in English that is disconnected from the history and present lives of Israelis.”
Sam Sokol contributed to this report.
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