One might think that Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert would have more pressing issues on his agenda but he made the headlines last week by commenting on a row about the World Cup being shown on a pay-per-view channel. Olmert said he has not yet subscribed to the channel, launched by a company joint-owned by the agent Pini Zahavi, as he is waiting for the price to drop. It struck a common chord with his public.
Zahavi is one of the owners of Charlton, a media company which holds Israeli broadcasting rights to the World Cup, the English league and domestic top flight. In the past few years, Zahavi and Eli Azur, the co-owner of Charlton and the owner of the Jerusalem Post, launched a pay-per-view channel covering the English Premiership and some Israeli league matches. Despite a massive public outcry, pay-per-view became a regular feature of the broadcasting map in Israel, albeit with low figures, and Charlton had hoped to extend it to the World Cup.
Apart from 12 games, including the opening match and some from the later stages which will be shown on public channels, the rest of the action from Germany will be broadcast for an extra charge. Charlton had estimated that around 200,000 households would buy the package for about £150 each with further income from selling some of the rights to internet and mobile phone companies. But the Israeli public refused to buy in and a boycotted the channel, even when the cost was cut to £50.
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