Earlier today, The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) approved the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation’s application for full EBU membership during the 81st EBU General Assembly (EBUGA) in Geneva.
The Israeli national broadcaster , IPBC, also known as כאן KAN, first went on air in May May 2017 following the shutdown of the former Israeli national broadcaster IBA. IBA’s final transmission was of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest.
KAN became a pending member of the EBU in the fall of 2017, and was granted participation at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest shortly after, just in time to qualify for participation at the 2018 Song Contest. While some were initially skeptical of approving the broadcaster as a member, due to lack of an integrated news department when the broadcaster first launched, the broadcaster eventually introduced its own news services to its channels.
And just shortly after that, Israel and KAN went to Lisbon with Netta and TOY, and the rest is history!
Israel won the Eurovision Song Contest four times, in 1978, 1979 and 1998 under the IBA and of course back in May under KAN.