Coalition Pushes Media Bill That Benefits Pro-Government Outlets Before Elections

The coalition is advancing a so-called media reform just four months before elections, but the article says it is really a redistribution of regulatory and financial advantages worth hundreds of millions of shekels. The bill would strengthen outlets seen as friendly to the government while making life harder for critics, with potential effects on the media landscape and coverage ahead of the vote.

One major beneficiary would be businessman Patrick Drahi, whose holdings include HOT, i24NEWS, Srugim and Kikar HaShabbat. The proposed changes would let i24NEWS begin airing commercials immediately, preserve a prominent channel placement, expand distribution on cable and satellite, remove a minimum news-investment requirement, and ease restrictions on cross-ownership. The bill also contains clauses that would require commercial broadcasters, including Keshet, to make some content available to distribution platforms for free, which could mainly help HOT.

Channel 14, identified as a pro-government outlet and owned by Yitzhak Mirilashvili, would also receive extensive relief. The draft would exempt it from some rules applied to large commercial channels, allow it to charge for content, cut license fees, remove the obligation to create a separate news company, cancel the requirement to move its studios to Jerusalem, lower obligations to invest in news and high-end programming, and change ratings methodology in a way that could direct government advertising money to the channel.

The value of the benefits for each of the two main beneficiaries is estimated at hundreds of millions of shekels a year. The timing, just months before elections, has raised concern because the move is not only regulatory, but could also shift resources toward supportive media and increase economic pressure on more critical outlets.