It’s always interesting to see how many reactions you get after a TV or radio interview. What’s even more interesting is what type of people tell you they watched.
Years ago, I would occasionally participate in the conservative pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 news broadcasts and not get any feedback. When I participated in their highest-rated show a few weeks ago, I was surprised by the feedback. Dozens of people either reached out or told me they saw me on TV.
It was also interesting to see the type of people who responded. One of our webdesk editors said, “My father saw you on Channel 14,” which surprised me. There was also the woman who organized children’s activities at the hotel where we were staying.
Some 24 hours later, I was interviewed by a different mainstream broadcast channel, and for the longest time, I didn’t receive any response. When it came, it was from a mix of secular-center-left people or elderly religious-Zionists.
But interestingly, though these two shows are broadcast at about the same hour of the day, I received a lot more feedback from my interview with Channel 14. I was blown away. It made me understand that so much has changed in the past few years – more than I would ever imagine.
Israeli media, and the nuances of this field of work, are so complicated that it needs a year’s worth of columns in order to begin to understand. But if you were to speak about media consumption in Israel in 2025, versus say mid-2023, we’re talking about a whole different world. What has changed? What hasn’t?
Something basic changed in how Israelis get news after October 7. The old map that put Channel 12 in the center and Channel 13 nearby does not explain the habits you see now. People live inside their phones. They mix TV clips with Telegram posts, WhatsApp voice notes, and short videos from accounts that are not traditional media at all.
Start with the shift to social and private channels. According to the Israel Democracy Institute, a May 2024 survey found that about two-thirds of Jewish Israelis get news on WhatsApp and 44% get it on Telegram. The same survey noted that WhatsApp users belong to an average of 15 groups and Telegram users follow about 10 groups.
That is not a side dish anymore. Many Israelis will base all of their information on these news-aggregating WhatsApp groups. Of course, many, or most of the news there is based on real media outlets (not only), but it has still become something that changed the way we consume news and relate to it.
The trend kept rising into 2024 and 2025. As reported by the Israel Internet Association, Telegram use in Israel jumped from 54% at the start of 2023 to about 70% by early 2024. That is a very fast move for a messaging app in a small market.
BUT SPEED can also cause issues. During the war, false reports moved quickly through these channels and hurt real families. In October 2024, Israeli media described how rumors of a rescue spread online and frightened relatives of the hostages until the story was denied.
The Israel National Cyber Directorate later warned of fake alert campaigns that tried to panic people with recorded hostage audio and bogus air raid messages.
At the same time, the new pipeline gave rise to alternative news brands that live inside Instagram and Telegram. Accounts like Hamal and Push built very large audiences by promising real-time updates.
On its Instagram page, Hamal describes itself as “breaking news in real time” and has a six-figure following. Push calls itself “real-time reports” and shows hundreds of thousands of followers.
You do not have to like their tone to recognize their reach. These small outlets have a huge impact, as well as business models. They sell advertising or media, and make a profit by keeping their operations compact.
Television is changing shape
Television has not disappeared – it changed shape. Many Israelis now watch TV through apps on phones, tablets, and smart TVs.
The growth of Over-The-Top platforms (OTT), or as some call it, streaming, made that easy. According to Globes, yes had about 571,000 TV customers in mid-2024, and the market estimated FreeTV at around 100,000. FreeTV and STING market themselves as app-first services that let viewers jump into live channels and clips without installers or satellite dishes. This is part of why people say they watch “TV” on a phone.
Inside that new landscape, Channel 14 found a format that fits the feed. Its shows are built to be clipped and shared. The channel streams live on YouTube and pushes full episodes and short cuts that travel quickly. This is not a small tweak – it is a distribution choice. A viewer can watch The Patriots live at night, or scan highlights the next morning on a bus.
THE BET paid off. As reported by Walla’s end-of-year ratings wrap, Channel 14 rose through 2024 while Channel 13 dropped. The Seventh Eye wrote in May 2025 that Channel 14 had established itself as the second most-watched channel, citing data from the national ratings committee. Whether a reader agrees with the channel’s politics or not, the numbers matter.
The tone of Channel 14 also mattered. The New Yorker profiled the network in January 2025 and described how star hosts use a combative style that mirrors social media talk and keeps audiences engaged after the broadcast ends. The article quoted media scholars on how the channel tracks with the prime minister’s line. You can see the same style on the hosts’ feeds. They treat X and Instagram as a second studio.
On the other side, Channel 13 struggled with ratings and money. Globes reported in January that the channel was losing an estimated NIS 12 million to 14 m. ($3.5 m.-4.1 m.) a month during 2024, despite a cash injection from its owner. Bizportal called it one of the toughest crises in the channel’s history and noted the search for new investors. When a newsroom bleeds like that, it cuts shows and talent, and the slide gets worse.
There were new players, too. i24NEWS launched a Hebrew, round-the-clock service in mid-2024. At The Jerusalem Post, we described it as Israel’s first 24-hour news channel in Hebrew, with a polished debut and a big question about whether the market had room for one more. That move shows how strongly executives believe in live, app-friendly news in Hebrew.
IT IS important to add a counterpoint. When danger spikes, Israelis still go back to television for confirmation. The Israel Democracy Institute’s “Rising Lion” polling on media habits during June found that television news remained the main source of information about the war for both Jewish and Arab publics, just as it was right after October 7. People cross-check the feed against a live newscast when the stakes feel like life and death.
Put this together, and you get a simple picture. The average Israeli is consuming more news, not less. The first look often comes from a private group or a Telegram channel. Clips from TV talk shows set the frame hours before the eight o’clock bulletin.
Anchors with large social followings act like opinion leaders who can move traffic and shape mood in real time. According to IDI’s 2024 survey, viewers of their preferred channels report high trust in those sources even as broad trust in “the media” is lower. That is a recipe for strong bubbles.
For American readers who want to follow the public mood in Israel, the practical advice is clear. Watch the TV and the feeds at the same time. Sample Channel 14 on your phone at night. Check the public broadcaster. Scroll through Telegram channels that post security alerts and field videos.
Read the mainstream sites, then look at how Instagram accounts like Hamal and Push packaged the same event. You will see the round trip in action. A rumor hits Telegram. A clip from a talk show amplifies it. A mainstream newsroom confirms or corrects it. Then the correction tries to chase the first post.
The burden on journalists is also clear. We have to move fast enough to matter and slow enough to be right. According to the Cyber Directorate, warning about fake calls and bad information at this moment can traumatize people and put them at risk. Too many people heard about an injury or, God forbid, the death of their loved ones, through social media.
This is how Israel has changed. The news moved from the living room to the hand, from a single bulletin to many feeds, from broad institutions to smaller outlets that now sit at the center. The conversation feels more personal and more divided, much like in the United States. The country has shifted right, and Channel 14 is part of the core. Any honest story about Israel today has to start there.