Nir Zuk (YouTube Screen Shot)
Nir Zuk, an Israeli entrepreneur behind huge successes like Palo Alto Networks, is bringing to Israel a new television channel called Relevant. He says the media venture will have a liberal slant and that its style is based on that of MSNBC.
Relevant will be a streaming service that will offer programming on news and current affairs, so – an Israeli 24-hour news channel. The irony here is biting for anyone who knows anything about Israel. The country’s three broadcast channels are basically already 24-hour news channels in that at least 80 percent of their programming is devoted to news and talk shows. The rest is either so-called “reality TV,” foreign shows and movies or a minimum of original Israeli television shows required by law.
Nir Zuk is an Israeli-American software engineer and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of Orcam Technologies, a company that develops wearable assistive technology for people who are visually impaired.
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The Israel business daily Globes cited people “senior figures close” to Nir Zuk as explaining that his motivation for the new channel lies in the desire to offer a counter to Israel’s Channel 14. That channel could be described as Israel’s Fox News, but an orthodox Jewish version of Fox News. Most Israelis do not even know what it is.
It has been 18 months since Nir Zuk first initiated his Relevant venture and already has offices, equipment and a staff. But there is no word yet as to when it will launch – if ever – and it does not have a functioning website.
It is also not clear how much money it could make given the narrow audience base it would have. Perhaps Nir Zuk should have begun with a YouTube channel instead and waited to see where that would go.
As TBWA advertising agency partner Nevo Carmi explained the situation to Globes, “New players take a long time to generate exposure and new audiences, and advertisers prefer to avoid dealing with such minor players.”
“If most of the model is based on advertising budgets, it has no commercial feasibility and they will have a very complex challenge,” he added.
Nir Zuk was born in Israel in 1969. He served in the Israeli Defense Forces and then studied computer science at Tel Aviv University. After graduating, he worked for several Israeli technology companies, including Microsoft and Intel.
In 2010, Nir Zuk co-founded Orcam Technologies with Amnon Shashua and Zvi Shinar. Orcam develops wearable devices that help people who are blind or visually impaired to see and navigate the world around them. Orcam’s products use artificial intelligence and computer vision to identify and describe objects, people, and text.
Nir Zuk is a passionate advocate for assistive technology. He believes that technology has the power to transform the lives of people with disabilities. Zuk has received numerous awards for his work at Orcam, including the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Israel and the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneer Award.
