Roundtable: The Advertising Market and Content Market in the Israeli Media

The Israel Democracy Institute,
4 Pinsker Street, Jerusalem

The Israeli media is undergoing far-reaching changes as a result of economic and regulatory changes and the need to adapt to the new media and new business models.  The uncertainty and instability of this market was evident in the controversy over whether to extend the license of Israeli commercial television's Channel 10.  While other issues have received less exposure, they also play an important role in the media market, in public discourse, and in the development of high quality local content that is made available to the Israeli public.

Against this backdrop, on February 15, 2012, IDI and The Second Authority for Television and Radio (Israel's main television regulatory agency) convened a roundtable to discuss various aspects of the relationship between the advertising market and content market in Israeli media, especially in the broadcast media.

The discussion focused on the following questions:

1. How can we define the relationship between commercial value and advertising revenue, on the one hand, and public value, on the other?  What are realistic and unrealistic expectations of the media content market?  What is regulation's role as a rational, realistic, and constructive facilitator in this context?
2. What do high ratings and the unique television viewing patterns in Israel mean for the relationship between advertising revenue and investment in content?
3. What are the implications of the "permit fees" and other market failures found in the advertising market for the content market?  Does this require regulatory or legislative measures?
4. Do new models of advertising and of branded content require a change of consciousness and updated regulatory attention?