Hot 3 (styled as HOT3; ; also available in HD as HOT3 HD) is an Israeli

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

channel of the cable television company

HOT Hot commonly refers refer to: *Heat, a hot temperature *Pungency, in food, a spicy or hot quality Hot or HOT may also refer to: Places *Hot district, a district of Chiang Mai province, Thailand ** Hot subdistrict, a sub-district of Hot Distric ...

.''Israeli Television; Global Contexts, Local Visions''
2020. 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 (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

s, some American shows from the past (''

Soap Soap is a salt (chemistry), salt of a fatty acid (sometimes other carboxylic acids) used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually u ...

'', ''

All in the family ''All in the Family'' is an American sitcoms in the United States, sitcom television series that aired on CBS for nine seasons from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979, with a total of 205 episodes. It was later produced as ''Archie Bunker's Pla ...

)'',

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

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 the fictional Genoa City (named after the real-life Genoa City, Wiscon ...

'', 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. Television Studios, its main source, 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 (producer), David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting List of Friends episodes, ten seasons. With an ensemble cast ...

'', '' ER'', ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The series follows Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey American Mafia, Mafia boss who suffers from panic attacks. He reluct ...

'' and ''

The West Wing ''The West Wing'' is an American 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 House, where t ...

'', which were soon purchased by other Israeli 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 binder the name

Hot Hot commonly refers refer to: *Heat, a hot temperature *Pungency, in food, a spicy or hot quality Hot or HOT may also refer to: Places *Hot district, a district of Chiang Mai province, Thailand ** Hot subdistrict, a sub-district of Hot Distric ...

. To date, the longest-running original show on the channel was ''Good Evening with Guy Pines'', a televised entertainment magazine hosted by Guy Pines, covering stories from 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. ''Good Evening with Guy Pines'' moved to Channel 10 in 2010.

Rebranding

Having produced, in January 2009, the first ever Israeli original drama to be shot in

high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *Blu-ray Disc, the universal optical High Definition disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tap ...

(''

Pillars of Smoke ''Pillars of Smoke'' (, ''Timrot Ashan'') is an Israeli mystery/drama/thriller TV series aired on HOT 3 TV channel during 2009–2011. It was created by Oded Davidoff and Noah Stollman and produced by Herzliya Studios. The members of a (fictio ...

'' (''Timrot Ashan'')), it launched Hot 3 HD in January 2010, providing a

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of 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, simultaneously) ...

of Hot 3. In October 2011, after 20 years of broadcasting in fullscreen 4:3 aspect ratio, the original

SDTV Standard-definition television (SDTV; also standard definition or SD) is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. ''Standard'' refers to offering a similar resolution to the ...

channel was transferred to a

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), 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 ...

16:9 aspect ratio broadcast, with accordance to most of its content. As of an edit in 2017, many (but not all) of the channel's external acquisitions had moved to HOT HBO, making room in the schedule for Hot 3 to air original and reality dramas.

References

External links

{{Television in Israel Television channels and stations established in 1989 Television channels in Israel Hot (Israel)