After getting the Broadcasting Authority Law passed, Minister of Communications Gilad Erdan is moving towards what looks like a revolution in the supervision of TV broadcasting and content in Israel. A committee examining the regulation of commercial broadcasting, headed by Dr. Amit Shechter, submitted its interim report, which resuscitated the recommendation to establish a communications authority to oversee the commercial broadcasting and multi-channel TV market in Israel, and possibly also public broadcasting. The committee's recommendation also included closing down the Ministry of Communications.
The Shechter Committee also proposed innovative regulation in which no regulation at all will apply to the new players in the multi-channel TV market, such as the ventures planned by Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) and Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR). As their market share grows, the regulatory rules applying to these players will become more stringent. At the same time, the regulations applying to Hot Telecommunication Systems Ltd. (TASE: HOT.B1) and DBS Satellite Services (1998) Ltd. (YES) will be relaxed if they lose market share.
"We are in a transitory period whose length cannot be predicted," the report stated. "It begins with the providing and consumption of the current services, and is continuing with the change in the public's content consumption habits, the pace of which cannot be anticipated, due to the large number of technological, economic, social, and other variables. At its end, a communications environment will be stabilized around a new model, which may also be a dynamic and changing model."
In other words, the report was submitted just prior to the upheaval about to occur in the Israeli content market with the entry of new players from completely new infrastructure sources. The committee, which has already been meeting for almost six months, is at an interim stage in its work, and is still seeking a series of answers from the public to open questions.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 13, 2014
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2014