Keshet 12

Keshet 12 signed on at 8 p.m. on November 1, 2017, the exact moment Channel 2 signed off after 24 years. The handover was not a quiet one. Channel 2 had been a single commercial franchise shared by several producers, and regulators spent years forcing it apart into two competing general-interest channels. Keshet got the bigger half of the legacy, the prime-time entertainment formats and the news operation, and launched with it. Reshet took the rest and became Reshet 13.

Eight years later the channel is the most-watched commercial broadcaster in Israel. Its evening news, Channel 12 News, goes head to head with the public broadcaster Kan and with Reshet 13, and its prime-time schedule mixes original drama, celebrity reality, satire, and investigative journalism. The channel broadcasts free-to-air in Hebrew and streams through mako.co.il, the Keshet-owned portal that also carries its VOD library. Satellite and cable operators carry it in both HD and SD.

What separates Keshet 12 from a standard national network is its export arm. Keshet Media Group owns Keshet International, which sells formats and finished tapes to broadcasters and streamers worldwide, and that pipeline runs in both directions. A thriller commissioned for Israeli audiences in September 2026, The Escape, was filmed across Colombia, Georgia, and Israel and went straight onto Keshet International's MIPCOM slate. A domestic drama, Unconditional, was picked up by Apple TV. Netflix ordered Lovesick, starring Claire Danes, from the same creative ecosystem. The channel functions as a testing ground for content that can travel.

Its physical headquarters in Tel Aviv has been news itself. In July 2026 police arrested a suspect in a rock-throwing incident targeting the building. The channel remains a commercial operation funded by advertising and by parent-group distribution revenue, and it operates as the flagship of Keshet Media Group. [edit]

Keshet 12 exists to hold a mass Israeli audience in Hebrew, seven nights a week, across news and entertainment. The channel's own tagline, the television of Israelis, is a positioning statement as much as a slogan: it aims to be the default general-interest channel rather than a niche or prestige outlet. That means a schedule built around live news, reality formats, and scripted drama that can compete for the same eyeballs as Kan and Reshet 13.

The commercial mission runs alongside the editorial one. As a free-to-air advertising-funded broadcaster, Keshet 12 needs ratings, and its news division is one of the country's most-watched. The parent group's international sales arm adds a second purpose: formats and dramas developed for the Israeli market are packaged for buyers abroad, which spreads the cost of production and gives the channel a stake in the global content trade. [edit]

For 24 years, Israeli commercial television meant one channel. Channel 2 launched in 1993 and operated as a shared franchise among several content producers, with Keshet and Reshet among the biggest. Regulators eventually decided the arrangement had run its course and split the franchise into two competing general-interest channels. Keshet's successor channel, Keshet 12, went on air on November 1, 2017, the same day Channel 2 went dark. Reshet's channel became Reshet 13.

Keshet 12 launched with the stronger half of the inheritance: the prime-time entertainment formats and the news operation that had made Channel 2 dominant. It built from there into original drama, celebrity reality, and satire, and by the mid-2020s its shows were traveling. Apple TV acquired the Channel 12 drama Unconditional, releasing a trailer in April 2026. Netflix ordered Lovesick, starring Claire Danes, the same month. In September 2026 Keshet commissioned the thriller The Escape, filmed in Colombia, Georgia, and Israel, and Keshet International took international distribution rights and put it on its MIPCOM slate. October brought a second-season renewal for the Baron Productions celebrity format Who Wants to Start?

Not every headline has been about programming. In July 2026 police arrested a suspect in a rock-throwing incident at the Channel 12 headquarters building in Tel Aviv. In October 2026, reports that anchor Amit Segal had met with the owners of Channel 13 fueled talk of a high-profile defection. The channel's HD broadcast was noted as resuming on September 21, 2026. [edit]