Hot 3 (styled as HOT3; he, הוט 3; also available in
HD as HOT3 HD) is an Israeli
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
channel of the cable television company '
HOT
Hot or the acronym HOT may refer to:
Food and drink
*Pungency, in food, a spicy or hot quality
*Hot, a wine tasting descriptor
Places
* Hot district, a district of Chiang Mai province, Thailand
**Hot subdistrict, a sub-district of Hot Distric ...
'. First introduced as The Family Channel in the early 1990s and later simply as Channel 3, it was one of the first exclusive channels of regulated cable television in Israel.
History
The channel was founded by
Udi Miron in 1989 together with the establishment of ICP ''(Israel Cable Programming)'', and was one of the first cable channels in Israel with their launch in 1990.
At first the channel's Program Schedule was mostly made of
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
s, some American shows from the past (''
Soap
Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are use ...
'', ''
All in the family
''All in the Family'' is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. Afterwards, it was continued with the spin-off series '' Archie Bunker's Place'', which picked up where ''All in ...
)'',
Soap Opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
s such as ''
The Young and the Restless
''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (not the real-life similarly-named Genoa City, Wi ...
'', and a few experimental original productions.
Within a few years, the channel became the Israeli home of many successful television shows from America and other countries, adding the tag line "The best shows in the world". However, in 2002 the channel lost this privilege due to a financial dispute with
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
and could not continue to air content distributed by Warner. This resulted in Channel 3 losing shows such as ''
Friends
''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa ...
'', ''
ER'', ''
The Sopranos
''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...
'' and ''
The West Wing
''The West Wing'' is an American serial political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the West Wing of the White Hous ...
'' – all of which were purchased by other channels.
Since then the channel added more and more original content while continuing to air non-Warner purchased shows. The channel's name was changed to "Hot 3" in 2004, not long after the three Israeli cable companies united and became the "
Hot
Hot or the acronym HOT may refer to:
Food and drink
*Pungency, in food, a spicy or hot quality
*Hot, a wine tasting descriptor
Places
* Hot district, a district of Chiang Mai province, Thailand
**Hot subdistrict, a sub-district of Hot Distric ...
" company.
To date, the longest-running original show in the channel was ''Good Evening with Guy Pines'', a televised magazine hosted by
Guy Pines
Guy or GUY may refer to:
Personal names
* Guy (given name)
* Guy (surname)
* That Guy (...), the New Zealand street performer Leigh Hart
Places
* Guy, Alberta, a Canadian hamlet
* Guy, Arkansas, US, a city
* Guy, Indiana, US, an unin ...
, covering the world of entertainment both in Israel and the world. This show aired at least 4 times a week for 13 seasons between 1997 and 2010, and an earlier version was the Israeli ''Entertainment Tonight'', also hosted by Pines which aired from 1994 to 1996. Pines also covered events such as
film festivals
A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...
around the world before ''Good Evening'' started. ''Good Evening with Guy Pines'' moved to
Channel 10 in 2010.
Rebranding
January 2010 saw the launch of Hot 3 HD, a
high definition simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...
of Hot 3. Although a year earlier, in January 2009, the channel already produced the first ever Israeli original drama to be shot in high definition – ''Timrot Ashan'' (Pillars of Smoke).
In October 2011, the original
SDTV
Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
channel was transferred to
16:9 widescreen
Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...
broadcast, with accordance to most of its content, after more than 20 years of broadcasting in 4:3 aspect ratio.
Currently, many of the channel's acquisition series have moved to
HOT HBO
Hot or the acronym HOT may refer to:
Food and drink
*Pungency, in food, a spicy or hot quality
*Hot, a wine tasting descriptor
Places
*Hot district, a district of Chiang Mai province, Thailand
** Hot subdistrict, a sub-district of Hot Distric ...
, and since then the channel has been focusing on original and reality dramas and continues to broadcast several series of acquisitions.
References
External links
Official website
{{Television in Israel
Television channels and stations established in 1989
Television channels in Israel
Hot (Israel)