...and 10 more

Eliav Alalouf

Prosper Abitbul - War and Peace

Prosper Abitbul is the general manager of IDBC, the second satellite company, that may enter the competition, even though, correct to time of web-posting, it has yet to pay the required license fees. Due to the incessant battle and the regulator's excessive demands (the license fee was reduced from NIS 60 million to NIS 30 million was achieved thank to his efforts), he has created himself a negative image both with the Minister of Communications and her staff, and with his rivals. His partner is Arik Benhamou, general manager of 3Com, the communications equipment giant. Also, the company has a consultation agreement with Canal Satellite, which is highly successfully in the DBS field in France, and this group should therefore not be underestimated.

Yisrael Chachek - E-Commerce Yisrael Chachek's importance as a major player in the communications market, through the Aurec group, should not be underestimated. Chachek, currently general manager of Aurec and the man who gives the OK to Rami Belinkov, has a rich executive record. Among the positions he held are general manager of Israbeton, construction company Ashdar, of the Ashtrom group, and Champion Motors (importer of Volkswagens). He has an MA in business administration from the Insead Institute in France, and is a personal friend of Shlomo Piotrkowsky, which helped in setting up the AlphaCard venture in a cooperation between the First International Bank and Aurec.

Chechek noted in the past that he regards the credit card field as solely the initial stage in the move over to smart cards and other interactive technology services that will replace the use of cash, checks and even regular credit cards. With the "heating up" of Internet clearance and e-commerce, it is quite possible that this initiative by Chachek will grant Aurec a strategic and primary advantage in growing fields such as provision of banking, insurance and shopping services over the Internet by banks and other financing groups, and clearing house services for shopping channels and e-commerce.

Yossi Douer - Competition

Yossi Douer, general manager of cable company Tevel, which is controlled by Discount Investment, was described at the time as the last of the just. Moshe Ronen and Reuven Avital, the two former general managers of Golden Lines and Matav, respectively, obstinately resisted the Ministry of Communications' efforts to expand deployment of cable television to outlying areas, an attitude which led to the expected entry of satellite broadcast companies. Douer, with his down-to-earth strategic approach, estimated that, despite the lack of economic feasibility, it would be better to deploy in outlying areas, in compliance with the wishes of Minister of Communications Limor Livnat. He was right in doing so. Tevel was the first company to have set up a bidirectional cable infrastructure. Today Tevel is the only cable company to offer the home cinema service enabling subscribers to order specific films.

The last of the Mohicans, Douer was the only cable television general manager to have held on to his post. All the others either left or were replaced (depending on whom you're talking to), because it is apparently difficult for people who run a monopoly to adjust to new managerial concepts in an era of competition. Welcome phrases such as "The customer is always right" make little difference to clients who must wait for weeks for linkup. Douer's post in Discount Investment's communications group will become clearer after Bain consultancy, which is analyzing the IDB group structure - and the inclinations of Discount Investment general manager Yoram Turbowicz. Douer's position may be weakened by the fact that Avi Teitleman and Benny Einhorn are around, and that the group is hiring additional communications people.

Eliezer Fishman - Finance

"Globes" controlling shareholder Eliezer Fishman has made a number of moves in the telecommunications sector, thereby gradually turning himself from a financier into a mini communications empire.

In the last few years, Fishman bought 24% of Yediot Ahronot for $150 million. He also acquired holdings in cable television companies, and a slice of international carrier Golden Lines. In the last two years, he took advantage of the momentum surrounding cable companies to pull through a series of deals, in which he bought and sold shares in Gvanim and Idan, reaping impressive returns of 100% in less than a year, and making tens of millions dollars in profits. Let us mention in passing that a record subscriber value of $1,900 was set at the sale of 25% of Idan's shares to Golden Lines for $50 million.

Although he has sold investments, Fishman is still well involved and well entrenched in the sector. As the largest private shareholder in Yediot Ahronot, he is also a stake holder in Golden Lines, 30% of which are controlled by Yediot Ahronot.

Zvi Hauser - Advertising

Adv. Zvi Hauser, inexperienced chairman of the cable and satellite broadcasting board, has starred in the headlines, not in a very promising context. Hauser, regarded as an intelligent, hard-working individual, (itself a rarity where political appointments are concerned), isn't coming in for much in the way of compliments, especially seeing how he and his colleague, authority chairman Adv. Yossi Abadi, bungled the opening of the multi-channel television market to competition. The report prepared by Abadi paled in comparison with the highly professional, polished cable companies report prepared by economist David Boaz.

Even so, Hauser is evincing a David Tadmor-like tendency to demonstrate presence, and is expected to arm himself with considerable power in the cable television and satellite broadcasts field. He also revealed a few interesting titbits of information to "Globes": "If it's going to a free-for-all, then advertising should also be put on the table. There is no reason to prevent the sector as a whole from choosing between financing channels by means of subscription fees, or advertising, or a combination of both. Only in this way will the channel creators be able to transmit their channel without collecting percentages from the infrastructure owners, and in future, even paying them for air time.

The opening up of the advertising market to competition is a prime public interest. It will increase the supply of broadcasts to the public and broaden the range of channels. From the economic aspect, the competition will reduce the cost of advertising and also enable medium size and small companies to advertise on television. The entire sector will undergo a process of normalisation. And I expect the whole TV advertising pie to get bigger. In any event, in the coming decade, the Internet will reshuffle the whole deck of cards, and upset all known rules, and the government's capability of regulating the advertising field will in any case evaporate".

Amit Levin - Technology

Yet another cable man whose name is absent from the previous pages is Matav general manager Amit Levin, who was appointed to the post following Reuven Avital's departure. Although Levin is highly esteemed for his superb technical skills, his marketing performance is still somewhat lackluster. A dye-in-the-wool operations manager, Levin's target is to prepare Matav for its technological future - the era of the Internet, data communications and telephony.

Matav is an interesting candidate for sale. Its assets have considerable strategic value for various communications groups, notably Aurec and Discount Investment. But these, of course, are the kind of things taken care of further up the decision-making ladder - at the level of Dankner Investments chairman Shmuel Dankner and his deputy, Uri Levit. It goes without saying that this reduces Levin's power to influence the course of events.

Udi Miron - Content

As regards content, we have already mentioned Ami Giniger as the predominant figure. But his partner in Noga Communications is also likely to attract no little attention in the digital broadcasting field. And like many predominant types, Noga general manager Udi Miron has and will continue to have plenty to say.

Miron believes, for example, that creating winning content is not just a matter of money. "Everybody will have Hollywood movies and series. But the winner will be whoever can develop channel structure that will captivate the audience, while intelligently combining foreign and local materials. A good content company is not a company that runs promos for Hollywood content, but one that takes existing content, adds local material to it, and creates a unique combination. This is why content companies will rise or fall on innovation, on developing new things that attract public attention, especially in view of the fact that the Internet will shortly enter into competition over leisure hours. The fashion channel, for example, is a brilliant idea. I may like it or not like it, but in the content field, it is considered brilliant, because it very successfully carried MTV to another field".

Regarding the war over content, Miron says: "at this stage, the hardest fought war will be over imported materials, and for the time being, the majors (the big Hollywood studios) are bleeding the cable TV and DBS companies white. It seems to me that, at the second stage, after everyone pours out their money overseas, more resources will start being applied to creating Israeli content".

Oren Most, Yaakov Kedmi - Marketing

Two marketing experts, Oren Most of Cellcom and Yaakov Kedmi of Partner, are expected to take a prominent place in the evolution/revolution in the local communications market. In contrast to the technology colleagues in planning and engineering departments, marketing people wrap themselves in shrouds of mystery and do not disclose where they are at, until afterwards, so as not to give valuable information to rivals.

Most, vice president for business development and marketing, regarded as Cellcom's #2 following Manova's exit, showed high class managerial ability and sound marketing understanding throughout his career in Cellcom, particularly during the crisis that spawned the term "Cell -"clum"(nothing). On the other hand, the strategy behind the "balloon" advertising in which he played a part, was a mistake in the eyes of many(particularly vocal in his criticism was Amikam Cohen of Partner), since it accorded a small player recognition, not the normal run of things.

Yaakov Kedmi, a wise and creative marketing wizz, managed (thanks to Pele-Phone's network crashes, among other reasons) to market Partner as a refreshing, cutting edge and sophisticated brand - almost elitist. Despite the harsh criticism, for example by Benny Einhorn on the strategy chosen by Partner (first focus on Pele-Phone subscribers and then look for new ones), proof of the successful, powerful launch of Partner-Orange springs to mind every time we see an orange billboard.

Uzi Peled - Culture

Telad general manager Uzi Peled, a pessimist, also speaks of the cultural aspect. He told "Globes": "I am sure that as soon as we get masses of American television here, we'll start celebrating Christmas, and it won't take long. It already happened, this year, on St. Valentine's day. We forgot that we have the 15th of Ab, and we celebrated love-day. So the real challenge is to emphasise Israeli culture.

"There is a limit how much content Israel needs. We are not America. I am not sure there are enough subscribers here to provide a living for everyone. One must understand that television will never go economically bankrupt, but it could reach cultural bankruptcy. In Italy, the open skies policy resulted in a situation in which the most popular programmes are in the style of who will be the first to remove her bra on live broadcast."

Uri Shinar - Content

Uri Shinar, general manager of Keshet, one of the three Channel Two concessionaires, is also active in content, and his views are far from predictable. In an interview with "Globes" three weeks ago, he explained that there has so far not been much demand for content, because the conduction sector was a resource in short supply. Digitization, together with the advent of a new competitor, is creating a tremendous conduction supply, and therefore, the existing content supply has already become inadequate.

"In future years", Shinar predicts, "we will see a sharp increase in the prices of the prevailing content. At the same time, the rating level of each of the channels will slide, because there will be a great many niche channels that will compete for the subscriber's time. However, advertising prices will not fall, on the contrary. In the large US networks, ratings are falling, but the prices of advertising and content are rising. The big advertisers understand that if a channel broadcasts 'Seinfeld' it is worth their while advertising on it even if it only has a 10% rating. On such a channel, only the biggest and strongest advertisers can appear".

Published by Israel's Business Arena July 1, 1999