The future of news and information on Reshet 13 hinges on ongoing negotiations. Although a preliminary agreement for its acquisition by Patrick Drahi was ultimately not renewed on 8 March, the billionaire businessman is still in the running, but he now faces a formidable competitor: a consortium of Israeli tech investors who are favoured by the TV channel’s journalists. Its newsroom is one of the largest in Israel, employing some 270 media professionals.
These journalists oppose a takeover by Patrick Drahi because they fear it would lead to Reshet 13’s newsroom being merged with that of i24 News, the conservative multilingual news channel founded and financed by Patrick Drahi. Furthermore, the current legal framework prohibits controlling multiple media platforms as a majority shareholder. This rule could apply in this case as Drahi owns the telecoms operator HOT, which offers a multi-channel television service. The Israeli Journalists Syndicate has referred the issue to Israel’s media regulator, the Second Authority, and the competition authority, i24 News and Reshet 13 being direct competitors in the news sector.
While the billionaire has not announced a plan to merge the newsrooms of the two channels in the event of an acquisition, a voluntary departure and layoff plan launched at i24 News in January could be paving the way for such a scenario. According to the business daily The Marker, 46 i24 News employees signed up for the voluntary departure plan in January. In February, IceNews, a news site specialised in media, reported that a similar number of employees are in the process of being laid off. The Israeli Journalists Syndicate confirmed to RSF that about 85 jobs have been cut, representing nearly a quarter of the channel’s workforce.