Is the Second Authority instructing Channels 12 and 13 to shorten the newscast?
On Thursday, members of the Second Authority Council, headed by Yulia Berkovich, discussed the issue of shortening the newscast from 90 minutes to just one hour.
The hearing was held after a major network protest, in which more than 5,000 complaints were received in the past six months by viewers at the house who were fed up with the length of the editions, which begin before eight in the evening and end after 9:30 p.m.
Following the protest and complaints, the second authority commissioned a large survey of viewers and a focus group.
According to the results of the survey, published here for the first time, more than 60 percent of the respondents thought that the length of the edition should be shortened, and the vast majority stated that a news edition should last only a maximum of 40 minutes - less than half the existing situation.
Injury to creators
The council was attended by News 13 CEO Aviram Elad and producer and agent Shai Nesher, who explained the harm to creators and the television industry: "The State of Israel gave Keshet and the network a license to sell advertisements, ie a license to print money, for what?
To benefit the people of Israel, including children, youth and adults, by consuming quality content.
And how do they do that?
Through news broadcasts from 15:00 to 21:30, and produced by whom?
And even if they claim in front of you that 'Amnon Levy' and 'Rafi Reshef' are external productions, that is not accurate.
"Those who sit in the Keshet and Reshet facilities also use the operation team of Reshet and Keshet and use the news articles," explained Nesher, who made the voices of the creators heard.
"And where is the livelihood for the hundreds of families in the television industry and the production of quality content to enrich the cultural life of the residents of Israel? In 2020, Keshet earned more than NIS 100 million and the network several tens of millions. And what about Israel? One outdoor production every evening."
The chairman of the second authority, Yulia Shmalov-Berkovich, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Recall that according to the laws of the second authority, the newscast should end every evening at 21:00, but the law was changed following the corona plague and the three election campaigns, so the channels received permits to exceed.
Shortening the edition to just one hour means spending tens of millions of shekels a year - an amount that no body wants to give up by choice.
However, it should be noted that news workers are in favor of the abbreviation.
"When you work from 3pm to midnight for all the shows you miss good stories and items along the way because you don't really have the time to work on them properly," one reporter said.
"When there is not much news, you have to start finding interesting topics, and this is where the nightmare begins. No wonder almost every post-session ends with 'That's how it is when you do an hour-and-a-half edition.'"
Those who oppose the move are mainly Keshet 12 and very strangely also Michelle Kramerman, the director general of the second authority, who may not have an influence on the decision, but if it is decided to shorten the edition, she will have to implement it.
This coming Thursday, the committee is expected to convene again and meet the representatives of News 12 of Keshet, the biggest and dominant opponents of the most important and necessary move for television in Israel.