“We are like a ‘start-up company’ and hope to keep the dynamism of our operations,” said Frank Melloul, CEO of Israeli news channel i24News.
I24News is the brainchild of Patrick Drahi, who approached Melloul, formerly of France24, to set up the new venture in the beginning of 2013.
The channel broadcasts with a team of 250 people, of which 150 are journalists, from a hangar in Jaffaport. The first broadcasts started on July 17, 2013. “We launched withing 100 days after setting up.”
The channel broadcasts 24 hours in English and French and seven hours a day in Arabic, from 7pm till midnight. “But we hope to expand soon to 24 hours.”
“When we started, people told us we were crazy to start up another news channel, but we are a unique news channel, as we are the only broadcaster from a democracy in the Middle East.
“Our operation is also different from say, BBC World News or the VOA, we have all the journalists of the three language division in the same edtiorial room.”
Having closed recent deals with Kabel Deutschland and Swisscom TV, Laurent Malek, the channel’s CMO and CCO, hopes to announce further deals includibng Turkey and Nova Multichoice, as well as expanding into Africa.
“We are first focusing on Europe and the US, then we hope to expand in Africa and Asia,” according to Malek, who has secured deals to 42 million homes in the US and 40 million in Europe in Spain, Italy, Poland, Germany, Switzerland and more.
