The story
Founded by Ram Belnikov in 2003.1
Pre-merger
Cable television was regulated in 1989, following concerns over IBA losing viewers to relays of Jordanian and Lebanese TV and illegal cable companies and VHS tapes. These were forbidden from carrying national news, which would only be reserved for Channel 2, but only when it was expected to become a regular service. 26 channels were authorized by June 1989, among them CNN International, Rai Uno, 3sat and a Chilean channel. There were also offerings from France, Spain, Belgium, Ethiopia, Cyprus, Egypt and Turkey. Syrian channels, channels from the Saudi-backed Arabsat satellite and later also Iran were banned.
There were six companies legalized:
Tevel: Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Jezreel Valley, a subsidiary of United Cable Television Corporation of Denver and the local aDiscount Investment Corporation.
Cable Systems Media: Bat Yam and Kiryat Shmona, owned by the Ma'ariv Dankner groups and an unidentified US shareholder
Israel Cable Services: Beersheba-Dimona-Yeruham-Arad, Rehovot, Acre and Nahariya, owned by Malarkey-Taylor Association of Washington D.C., Omega Communications of Indianapolis, Harcourt Investments and the Dagon Mamgurot Corporation
Arutzi Zehav (Golden Channels): Jerusalem, Petah Tikva, Ramat Gan and Beit She'an, owned by Aurec (local franchisee of the Yellow Pages as Golden Pages), Yedioth Aharonoth (20%) and Tadiran (20%). Large numbers of Jerusalem Haredis and Arabs were not expected to subscribe despite a high potential
Gvanim: Rishon le-Zion, Carmiel and Ma'alot, one third of the company was owned by Rediffusion Switzerland
Cablenet: Haifa, Partly owned by Tonna-Saditel Electronics (France) and Minim Cables
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As Hot
The company was founded on 18 August 2003 as merger of the three national cable companies in Israel: Matav, Tevel and Golden Channels that can be directly linked to the growing competition of the local satellite television provider Yes. While these companies had pursued a union since the late 1990s in order to save administrative and content purchasing costs, and especially after Yes was founded in order to stop it before it could grow, the Israeli government monopoly regulator had denied it until Yes had grown at least a minimum subscriber base. The three original companies had not competed with each other since each had been regulated with specific cities and regions.
Hot offers about 200 local and foreign-language channels in its digital television services. It also offers several exclusive channels under the Hot brand name. In addition to the digital television services, Hot provided an analog television service until an unknown date, despite plans to abandon it by 2012, but it has already disconnected the analog service in many areas including central Israel, in favor of digital signals. Many HOT subscribers must now have a decoder box to view broadcasts.
Not long after it was created, Hot began offering local telecom service using VoIP, a voice-over-internet technology and internet access services as well. Hot is not an Internet service provider and is only permitted to offer last-mile access. As of 2006, Hot had about 950,000 customers; 60% using the digital television services, over 400,000 using the internet services and over 100,000 using the phone services.
As of late 2005, Hot offered a wide VOD service, offering content from almost all channels and content that is not broadcast by other companies.
In 2009, businessman Patrick Drahi increased his stake in the company. Drahi completed the takeover in 2011, and offered to buy the remaining shares in 2012. As a result, Hot is a part of Drahi's company, Altice Europe NV, as of 2018.
In December 2010, Hot received a license to operate as an Internet service provider in the form of a subsidiary. In February 2021, Israel's Ministry of Communications approved Hot's NIS 170 million investment in the fiber-optic infrastructure venture IBC, subject to a number of antitrust conditions.
In 2018, Hot started broadcasting Kan 11 at 4K resolution for the first time via channel 511.
From Wikipedia’s article on Hot (Israel), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4