Sharon Gal/Reuven Castro
This week at the end of March, exactly one year ago, a viral monologue by 13 news anchor Udi Segal against Prime Minister Netanyahu and the legal revolution he led, marked for many veteran society watchers a new news line.
A month earlier, deep into the gallop of Netanyahu and his government towards the coup, News 13 gave up three significant ratings anchors in one month - Ila Hasson, Sharon Gal and Abri Gilad.
On the waves of protest against the coup, while almost officially identifying with the messages of the liberal camp, News 13 tried to be reborn, with a clear agenda and a reasoned identity card.
Within a few days, then, under CEO Aviram Elad, this identity card also received a name, which became a campaign. "Free press" was the slogan, accompanied by the Israeli flag. The company's journalists changed the profile picture on their accounts and adapted themselves to the new message. Huge advertising space On the Azrieli Tower - the epicenter of the protest against the coup - was acquired. The statement of intent was clear: we have nothing left to lose. If we die, then we stand upright.
However, in the viewing data test, the condition of the channel only continued to deteriorate even more, with this time in the background a new change. Channel 14 that after years of shuffling began to climb, and bite more and more chunks of all the channels - also from Network 13. Compared to Keshet 12, Network 13 had no fat - and there was more to lose.
In days when 90% of the broadcast schedule includes news, this statement alone tells the whole story and even corresponds with a similar text written by Tselkovnik to the employees
Back to 2024, and to the new reality that was created: the takeover of the news broadcasts on the TV channels, in the shadow of the war, and also, probably, another change in the political opinions of the majority of the Israeli public who were traumatized by it - a shift to the right.
Against the backdrop of making Channel 13 the weakest of the four central channels in Israel, the announcement by Channel 13 about the re-hiring of Gal to the channel's screen, tells how it at least sums up the adventure: admits and leaves Yeruham.
The operation failed, the patient died.
Gal's re-hiring in the ranks of Network 13 (remember, sometimes nostalgia is overpowering: Gal's viewing figures also weakened significantly in his last months on the channel) should be examined in one context - the face of the new Network 13 management.
The channel, of course, denies that Gal is coming on the background of his right-wing bibist ticket, and knows how to tell that Gal is a "talented TV personality who knows how to deliver a show", and that they are constantly looking for "television figures who know how to generate conversation and dialogue".
But it is hard not to see his recruitment in the background of the strange letter issued by the CEO of the new channel, Emiliano Kalmazuk, just two weeks ago, in which he explained that "we are not here to stir up discord among the people of Israel, but to entertain;
In the days when 90% of the broadcast schedule consists of news, this statement alone tells the whole story and even corresponds with a similar text that the CEO of News 13 Or Tselkovnik wrote to the employees, upon taking office, sometime in early October.
Tselkovnik also spoke about the need to create "balanced television" - a phrase that, in the ears of many on the channel, was perceived at the time as washing words for breaking to the right, or snobbery.
And there is something else that should be said about this new-old recruitment, which was welcomed by the two channel managers: the law establishes a structural separation between the broadcasting channels and the news companies.
In the absence of effective regulation and under the barbarian press in the studios, just like request 12 - that separation was deleted, and its burial place is unknown.
Sit as a winner.
Gal on screen 14/screenshot, channel 14
Explosions with Bardogo
As for Gal, after being pushed out of it (then to an unspoiled country), he returned to Channel 13 as a winner and with the receipts of the presenter of the more popular competing central edition.
The assessment in the industry is that, similar to his former colleague Ayala Hasson, Gal also carries with him 1-2 rating points that are "embodied in the brand".
That is, viewers who will follow him and watch him no matter what.
In a world of fractional percentages and a fight for every pair of eyes, this should not be underestimated.
Gal, as far as he is concerned, arrives at excellent timing, with in the background repeated reports of fights and explosions with the Prime Minister's personal secretary on Channel 14 Yaakov Bardogo and under an almost open check he received from the company's chairman Nadav Topolsky, who according to sources at the channel has been striving to bring him in for months, and was waiting for the departure of the CEO Yoram Altman, who opposed the move.
In addition, the viewership of the channel is so low that it will be difficult for him not to pleasantly surprise.
Import of Elad.
Shem Tov/screenshot, News 13
The estimate in the industry is that Network 13 will try to continue to recruit "balancing" figures to regain the lost audiences.
Such recruitments will naturally come at the expense of existing bands, and will oblige the others to integrate into the new line
The channel, on the other hand, will have to face quite a few challenges - the first of which is how to retain the viewers who will come, if they come, also for the rest of the broadcast schedule (in the professional jargon: to create a "flow").
For example, it is likely that the viewers of Gal will not be the natural audience who would want to continue watching, right after him, Reviv Drucker.
And here exactly lies the great difficulty of the channel's managers: continuing to navigate the rickety ship under a possible protest from quite a few journalists on the channel, who at this time are afraid of its new direction.
And they have something to fear.
The estimate in the industry is that Network 13 will try to continue recruiting "balancing" figures, similar to Gal (some would say even similar to the Friday news presenter on the Netali Shem Tov channel), all in an attempt to regain the lost audiences.
Such recruitments will naturally come at the expense of existing tracks, and will oblige presenters and journalists on the channel to integrate into the new line.
And there is another point, based on bitter experience, it is not clear whether the management of Network 13 took into account: Lagal has an illustrious past of leaving media outlets, sometimes inexplicably or capriciously.
He disappeared from the Channel 20 screen several years ago while his managers are trying to get hold of him, and even now - Channel 14 - he is leaving against the background of warnings issued by the channel's executives about breach of contract and abandonment in violation of the rules.
And perhaps there is actually an optimistic statement by the channel that has already tried everything - this is also part of the show.
More on the same topic:
Sharon Gal
Network 13
Channel 14
rating
War of Iron Swords