Alef Network

Alef Network was an Argentine cable television channel catering to the Jewish population of South America. Created in 1995, it was available on the cable networks of Buenos Aires until its closure in 2001, caused by the financial crisis. It was founded by Horacio Lutzky, who later became a part of I24NEWS, an international news network funded by Altice.

History

Alef Network was created in mid-1994 by a group of fifteen Argentine Jewish investors as well as local and Israeli media professionals and received a greenlight from the authorities to begin operations in April 1995. The initial plan outlined a schedule in which two thirds of its output was being sourced from Israeli television networks, either of its own production and acquired. Carlos Gurovich of Channel 2 oversaw its operations from Israel; the remaining third of its output was produced at its facilities in Buenos Aires. In addition to programming from Israel, the channel planned to air Arab programming, coming in from Egypt, which had a substantial amount of television production, and the then-recent Palestinian production scene. As of mid-February, negotiations with Argentine cable operators have been made, as well as one with TVA in Brazil.^[1] It started with an initial investment of US$3 million, but operational costs were low as most of the programming was imported and had to be dubbed or subtitled.^[2]

The channel initially had a ten-hour schedule, which by November had increased to eighteen hours. By then, it had gained enough sponsors, such as Visa, Banco Mayo and wireless operator Movicom. Plans were made to expand to a full-day service (24 hours) by April 1996, and short-term plans involved the expansion of the channel to cable companies in Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Bolivia and southern Brazil. By year-end 1996, the channel aimed to cover eighteen countries in Latin America.^[2] Banco Mayo helped fund the channel, its foundation was in advanced negotiations to produce small programs to air in 1997.^[3]

When Cablevisión refused to renew its contract with HBO and Cinemax, as part of a series of changes to its line-up in January 1999, the channel moved from its extant allocation (channel 63) to the off-air slots occupied by Azul Televisión. The measure was criticized by the channel's staff, who was concerned about moving to a daypart where television viewing was low.^[4] By December 1999, the channel had changed its identity, ceasing to be a merely Jewish channel and aiming to cater to a wider demographic.^[5]

Finally, the company was dissolved on March 23, 2001.^[6]