The Israeli Format Export
Homeland, In Treatment, Fauda, Euphoria. The Israeli television format and adaptation business is now an established industrial category — the entertainment-side complement to Israeli technology export.
Media & Entertainment · Israel · Updated June 28, 2026
The Israeli television industry punches structurally above its weight in the global format-export business. The country of nine million people has produced, across the past twenty years, the original Israeli formats behind Homeland, In Treatment, Euphoria, Tehran, Fauda, The Spy, and a long list of additional international remakes and direct distributions. The structural reason is not coincidence. Israeli television operates under conditions — small domestic market, multilingual cultural inputs, military and intelligence-service narrative depth, and a creative class with structural international relationships — that produce stories travelling well across borders.
The Canonical Format Catalogue
The list of Israeli formats that produced significant international remakes runs deeper than most international observers recognize. Prisoners of War (Hatufim), created by Gideon Raff, was the format basis for Homeland on Showtime — one of the most commercially significant television franchises of the 2010s. BeTipul, created by Hagai Levi, was the format basis for In Treatment on HBO and was subsequently remade in more than 20 international markets. Euphoria, originating in the Israeli Hot drama of the same name and adapted by Sam Levinson for HBO, became one of the defining American teen dramas of the late 2010s and early 2020s.
Tehran, the Israeli espionage thriller, was distributed directly internationally through Apple TV+ rather than remade. Fauda, the Israeli special-operations drama, was distributed through Netflix directly. The Spy, based on the historical Eli Cohen story, was a Netflix original co-production with Israeli involvement.
The pattern across the catalogue is consistent. Israeli formats travel particularly well in espionage, political-military thriller, psychological drama, and contemporary coming-of-age categories. Israeli reality-format exports — Big Brother variants, dating-show variants, talent-competition variants — represent a separate and substantial commercial layer.
The Production Architecture
The Israeli television production industry runs through three principal commercial channels and their associated production houses. Keshet Broadcasting, the largest Israeli commercial broadcaster, operates Keshet International as its global format-distribution arm. Reshet Media, the second commercial broadcaster, operates similar international distribution structures. Yes Studios, the production arm of the Israeli satellite-television operator Yes, has built one of the strongest single international distribution catalogs in the Israeli industry.
Keshet International is the structural giant of the cohort. The company operates offices in Los Angeles, London, and beyond, with a development-and-co-production architecture that produces direct international content with Israeli creative DNA. Avi Nir, the Keshet CEO across the principal expansion phase, built the company into one of the most consequential non-Hollywood international content producers.
Yes Studios produced Fauda and several of the other Netflix-distributed Israeli direct titles. The structural relationship between Yes Studios and Netflix has been one of the most commercially significant international content deals for any Israeli production house.
The Format-Export Economics
The format-export business model centres on the licensing fee paid by the international broadcaster or streamer to the Israeli format owner for the right to produce a localized version of an Israeli original. Licensing fees vary by format, by market, and by the structural value of the international remake. For successful franchises, the licensing revenue runs into millions of dollars per season per major-market remake.
The format business also generates back-end participation — Israeli format owners typically retain a percentage of profits from successful international remakes. The Homeland back-end participation, for example, returned substantial revenue to the Israeli format owners across the show's eight-season Showtime run.
The economics of direct distribution — the Tehran, Fauda, and adjacent Netflix and Apple TV+ deals — are different. Direct distribution involves higher production budgets but eliminates the format-licensing fee and produces direct exposure to international subscriber economics through the streamer relationship.
The Structural Advantage
The structural advantage that produces the Israeli format-export position runs through several variables that are difficult to replicate in other small-market television industries.
The military-and-intelligence narrative depth. Israeli writers and creators have direct or close-relative experience with the institutional life of the IDF, Mossad, Shin Bet, and the broader Israeli security apparatus. The narrative authenticity of formats like Hatufim, Fauda, and Tehran derives from creative teams with structural access to the operational environment they depict.
The multi-cultural creative class. The Israeli population includes Russian, Ethiopian, Moroccan, Iraqi, Yemenite, Argentine, French, and American immigrant communities that produce a structurally multi-perspective creative class. The narrative diversity translates into formats that read as authentic across multiple international cultural contexts.
The small-market economic discipline. The Israeli domestic television market is too small to support large production budgets without international economic participation. Israeli producers are structurally trained to build internationally portable stories rather than narrowly local productions. The discipline is the commercial origin of the format-export competence.
The international creative network. Israeli writers, producers, and directors have, across the past two decades, built deep working relationships with U.S. cable, streamer, and broadcaster executives. The relationship architecture enables the format-export business in a way that several other small-market industries cannot replicate.
The Post-October-7 Position
The October 2023 war and its aftermath created unprecedented turbulence for the Israeli format-export business. International broadcaster and streamer engagement with Israeli content paused or slowed across multiple jurisdictions during the early period of the war. Several international production partnerships were postponed or cancelled. The cultural-boycott pressure on Israeli content reached the highest sustained level in the industry's history.
The industry has progressively adapted. Several Israeli-origin formats continued international production through the period without disruption. Direct-distribution titles continued. The structural relationships between Israeli production houses and international platforms held in most cases, even as the broader political environment created pressure.
The longer-term commercial impact of the post-October-7 environment on Israeli format exports is one of the open questions facing the industry. The first round of evidence suggests resilience but at reduced volume relative to the 2019-2023 peak.
What 2026 Tracks
Three threads matter. First, the Netflix, Apple, and Amazon engagement with Israeli content through the 2026-2027 development cycle and the question of whether the volume of Israeli-origin commissions returns to historical levels. Second, the Keshet International commercial performance and the broader competitive position of the major Israeli format-export houses. Third, the broader European and Asian market trajectory for Israeli content as the post-October-7 cultural environment evolves.
The Israeli format-export business is a structural cultural-economic asset. The position has held through cycles. The current cycle is a test the industry has not yet fully resolved.
Olam coverage
- Israeli television and the format-export commercial cohort
- Keshet International and Yes Studios
The Olam Editorial Team
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