Launched a decade ago by French-Israeli businessman Patrick Drahi, owner of French telecom operator SFR, I24News now appears to be entering its final chapter.
Patrick Drahi © Mena Today
Launched a decade ago by French-Israeli businessman Patrick Drahi, owner of French telecom operator SFR, I24News now appears to be entering its final chapter.
In recent weeks, most journalists across the channel’s French, English and Arabic services have reportedly been laid off, including several of its most recognizable on-air figures. What remains is a reduced programming schedule, with lower-cost content filling airtime as questions grow about the network’s long-term viability.
I24News was originally conceived as a multilingual international news channel, often compared to a smaller-scale Al Jazeera, aiming to project Israeli perspectives to a global audience.
Despite its ambitions, the channel struggled to establish a strong foothold in an increasingly competitive and fragmented media landscape.
A few months ago, Drahi expanded the venture with the launch of a Hebrew-language news channel, backed by significant financial investment. However, it failed to gain meaningful traction in a domestic market already dominated by well-established news competitors.
Industry observers now speculate that the experiment could end either in closure or in a sale to another media group. After ten years of operations and substantial investment, the future of I24News looks more uncertain than ever.
Iran has warned the United States that it would respond forcefully to an Israeli offensive on a mountainous ridge in southern Lebanon where Iranian military personnel are holed up alongside Hezbollah fighters, three officials briefed on the message told Reuters.
NATO member Turkey would consider taking its relations with the China and Russia-led security bloc, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, to a higher level, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.
The U.S. and Iran found themselves back in a war footing on Wednesday after the most significant exchange in weeks, with Washington threatening even more devastating strikes while Iran protested an attack that it said killed five and wounded dozens of civilians at a wedding.
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