Google and Facebook threaten Israeli economy

The leaders of Channel Ten and two Israeli production companies, Reshet and Keshet, are demanding that the state take urgent measures to save the local television advertising market.

In a joint letter sent to the Office of Commercial Broadcasting, it is noted that the development of digital broadcasting technology has led to a flow of advertising budgets to international companies such as Google and Facebook.

The authors of the document insist on the immediate intervention of the state in the process of regulating the television and video advertising market in Israel, since the trend of infusion of advertising budgets into foreign companies that are not tax agents in Israel threatens the local television industry in particular and the country's economy as a whole.

According to the consulting company Ifat Bakarat Piersum, in the first six months of this year alone, 895 million shekels were “cut off” from the total TV advertising budget of 23 million shekels (almost $78 million) for advertising on YouTube and other foreign Internet services ( 20 million dollars).