Collapse of Idan Plus broadcasts: Tens of thousands left without broadcasts

If you have Idan Plus – you will continue to receive a black TV screen: For about a month now, tens of thousands of viewers across the country have been unable to watch the main broadcast channels in Israel – Kan 11, Keshet 12, Reshet 13 and other channels, following serious disruptions in Idan Plus's broadcast system.

This is a platform that allows the reception of free television broadcasts through digital converter boxes, used mainly by disadvantaged populations who cannot afford to pay for cable or satellite television services.

The Second Authority , responsible for operating Idan Plus, announced the upgrade of the broadcasting infrastructure to a more advanced system, and called on owners of old converters to switch to a new DV3T2 converter, but even those who purchased the new converter are reporting an inability to watch broadcasts due to a shortage of active transmitters in many cities across the country.

The source of the problem, as it turns out, is the closure of one of Idan Plus's main broadcasting infrastructures. As a result, tens of thousands of households were left without access to public and commercial television broadcasts.

The damage is not limited to private viewers – medical centers and health insurance funds, which usually broadcast television channels for waiting patients, have also reported that they cannot receive the broadcasts, resulting in black screens in waiting rooms.

In recent weeks, the "Maariv" system has received dozens of complaints from viewers complaining that they cannot receive a response from Idan Plus' customer service. The hotline did not answer inquiries for a long time, and written inquiries via the service's website also went unanswered. For many viewers, this is a matter of complete uncertainty – they do not know how to resolve the problem and when, if ever, the broadcasts will resume as usual.

Most of the viewers affected are the elderly, new immigrants, young people, and those who cannot afford to pay for TV packages from Yes, Hot, Cellcom, or Partner. This is a public that relies on Idan Plus broadcasts as its exclusive solution for watching television, and is now left without a solution.

The second authority responded: "This is an infrastructure upgrade of the Idan Plus system to more advanced technology for the benefit of viewers using this system. The authority published weeks before the upgrade, an advance notice of this to the viewing public in various media outlets. Despite this notice, in the first few days, thousands of people called the call center requesting assistance, but now, most of the callers have already been dealt with and are receiving without any problems."

They added that "only a small portion of our call center data is still experiencing reception disruptions, and these disruptions are also expected to end in the coming days. Idan Plus teams continue to be deployed in the field to handle the malfunctions. In addition, additional transmitters have been connected one after another and the systems are being synchronized to handle the disruptions that are expected to end in the coming days. Idan Plus' call center has been significantly expanded and we are making every effort to respond to all callers."

The Ministry of Communications told Maariv in response: "The Idan Plus array is fully operated and maintained by the Second Authority. A significant portion of the Idan Plus array's transmission equipment has reached the end of its life in terms of maintenance, spare parts, and insurance. Due to the growing concern that many problems will remain unsolved, it is necessary to close the old multiplexer."

They noted that "by law, the Second Authority ceased the operation of the old multiplexer on January 31, 2025. In the weeks that have passed since then, the Second Authority has upgraded the array, installed additional transmitters that will increase coverage, and performed synchronization operations between the transmitters. As a result of the upgrade work, all of the licensed free channels (the corporate channels, Channels 12, 13, 14, 9, 24, and Hala TV) are broadcasting on Idan Plus.

"These upgrade operations affected all Idan Plus viewers," they explained. "Some viewers are required to perform certain technical operations in order to be able to watch these channels, while a negligible percentage of viewers will have to buy a converter box that operates on the new technology. We emphasize that according to the Ministry of Communications' estimates, the vast majority of viewers are not required to buy a new converter box, and therefore the type of converter box the viewer has should be checked."

"Data provided by the Second Authority to the Ministry of Communications indicates that at the beginning of the upgrade work, there was an increase of tens of percent in calls to Idan Plus' service centers. In the past few weeks, a significant decrease in the number of calls has been observed."

"These observations are as expected in projects of this type – multiple failures at the beginning of the implementation process, which gradually decrease until full implementation. Alongside this, there are isolated failures that affect some users, and are not related to the upgrade of the system. All of these are being handled by the Second Authority."