History
Michal Yannai in Arutz HaYeladim
The channel first launched in November 1989, as a part of Israeli cable's trial broadcasting prior to the 1990 official launch. At first the channel broadcast only two hours a day, and in its first two years was based primarily on purchased programs. In 1991, the channel began involving segments with human hosts and presenters. These segments grew to bigger live shows over the years and gave some of the presenters their tickets to stardom. The channel's growing popularity among children also led to many educational campaigns, regarding issues such as safety and tolerance.
In 1996, the channel's content was transferred to the control of the new company "Noga Tikshoret" ("Venus communication"), and the channel updated its programming to more interactive nature while also adding more original programs - a direction that the channel is following to this day.
In 2010, Cartoon Network became a television block on the channel appearing weekdays 11AM to 2PM, showing kids' shows from the channel dubbed in Hebrew. This happened because Cartoon Network's pan-European version was no longer available in Israel, having been removed years before the block's launch.
Oded Menashe, the last of the "original" presenters from the channel's first years, left in 2005 after 14 years; at the time no presenter had stayed longer at the channel. As of 2012, Menashe's record was surpassed by Tal Mosseri, who joined the channel in 1997 and left in mid-2015 after 18 years as a presenter. Besides Menashe, Museri and Kobi Machat, who joined the channel in 2000 and left in early 2012 after 12 years as a presenter, none of the other presenters, past or present, has ever stayed in the channel for more than nine consecutive years.
