In the same year, on 13 August 1968, the channel also broadcast for the first time the news bulletin in Arabic, presented by Gloria Stewart.

[5][6][7] In the first year of broadcasting, Israeli television operated as an independent unit within the framework of an "establishment team" headed by Prof. Eliyahu Katz from the Department of Communication at the Hebrew University, and several art and media people participated in it, including the artist Ada Hamayrit (Schwartz).

After that, Israeli television merged with the state radio station, Kol Yisrael, which was already operating within the framework of the Broadcasting Authority (which was founded about three years before).

As part of the negotiations for the formation of the government after the elections to the Seventh Knesset held in October of that year, the representatives of the religious parties demanded that the broadcasts planned for Saturday night should be frozen.

In the end, Prime Minister Golda Meir decided to temporarily respond to the demand of the religious, and freeze the opening of the broadcasts on Shabbat night.

On Friday of that week, in the afternoon, two lawyers, Yehuda Ressler and Adi Kaplan, addressed the High Court of Justice.

Original scripted content was almost never produced, with the most prominent among them in the 1970s being the sketch show Havoorat Lool, the satire program Niki Rosh and the drama series Hadva and Shlomik.

In 1979, the Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast from the IBA's buildings in Jerusalem live in color to the world and also in local distribution.

Its ratings dropped, it was given the image of an "adult" channel, and criticism of it rose in light of the fact that its budget was extensive and was paid through the television fee.

[14] At 1:50am on the early hours of 14 May 2017, after the final of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, the channel shut down partially, with IETV programming including the last edition of Erev Hadash in its old format (which would be renamed HaErev HaHadash before the 2018 shutdown) marking the end of definitive programming on the channel.

The HD feed was made available in late 2011, owing to the events of earlier in the year, when television stations in Israel ended analogue broadcasts.

Although the channel did not carry standard adverts, during breaks in high-profile programmes (such as coverage of Maccabi Tel Aviv's Euroleague matches) it displayed text on the screen, advertising companies, which was read out word-for-word by an announcer.

In addition to the text advertising, Channel 1 also showed public information films commissioned by the government.