I love watching Israeli TV programs (with subtitles) and trying to improve my Hebrew in the process. However, Reshet has decided to become mean and disallow viewing full episodes on their YouTube channel to anyone not in Israel. I’m not exactly sure why.
One reason I can guess is that Israel is always under scrutiny among their neighbours. Therefore, since the racers might “slip” and say something deemed controversial by the Western media, nobody outside of Israel proper gets to watch.
Another reason I can think of is that Reshet figures to not get valuable viewers to bring them money from Israeli advertising, therefore, “screw everyone else.”
I personally find this approach shortsighted and dumb, for the following reasons:
1. The more countries watching the videos, the more views are accrued. If there’s an Adsense account associated with the channel, Google actually pays you money (like a fraction of a penny per view, but it adds up) for every view.
2. Controversy sells, at least in the West. Who cares if Israeli TV gets a bad name? Negative publicity is still publicity!
3. Watching how Israelis work together and have a heart might actually improve the Aliyah situation for “Chutznikim” (people living outside – chutz – Israel).
Since they made it impossible, I see nothing wrong with getting these episodes in a back-handed manner. What you need is a friend/relative living in Israel to do the following for you: