Television in Israel refers to television broadcasting services in the State of Israel, inaugurated on March 24, 1966. Initially, there was one state-owned channel, operated jointly by the Israel Broadcasting Authority and the Israeli Educational Television. In 1986, a second state-regulated channel was launched. This channel became a state-regulated commercial channel in 1993. An additional commercial channel was introduced in 2002, followed by the introduction of three commercial niche channels: an Israeli Russian-speaking channel (in 2002), a channel of Israeli popular music (in 2003) and an Arabic-speaking channel (in 2012). Colour transmissions were introduced gradually around 1977 and 1979. Multichannel cable television service became available to subscribers gradually since 1989, although illegal cable TV stations were present in the big cities during the 1980s. Satellite-based multichannel service has been available since 2000.

Almost 75% of the population is subscribed to pay television systems which are provided by the cable service provider Hot, or by the satellite service provider Yes. The Israel Broadcasting Authority closed in May 2017 and was replaced by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation as the operator of the state-owned television channels. Channel 2 split into two channels in November 2017, giving each of the two remaining commercial companies their own channels, Keshet 12 and Reshet 13.

Upon its establishment in May 1948, Israel had one radio station, run directly by the government, which was a continuation of the British Mandate's Hebrew radio station. The first governments, headed by David Ben-Gurion, did not favor the establishment of TV stations. Nevertheless, the Israeli government discussed the idea of using television as an instructional and educational tool in 1952 and 1955. In 1961 the Israeli government asked UNESCO to offer its opinion, which was in favor of using television for educational purposes. In the early 1960s, television broadcasts from neighboring Egypt, Lebanon, and Cyprus gradually became available to Israelis through TV sets which were placed in public places, like cafés. Since they were mainly in Arabic, these broadcasts were popular among Israeli Arabs. This raised the government's concern about anti-Israel propaganda that might be included in them.

When Levi Eshkol assumed power as prime minister in June 1963, he started to promote the establishment of an Israeli TV channel. In 1964, he invited a team of experts from the European Broadcasting Union to submit their recommendations. In 1965, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority was established in order to distance the government from the everyday management and editorial decisions of the state-owned radio station. The government also passed a resolution stating that this new body will start TV broadcasts within two years.

Television in Israel was finally introduced on 24 March 1966, though not by the IBA, but rather by the Israeli Educational Television, which was funded by the Rothschild Foundation and acted as part of the Ministry of Education. The first transmissions were lessons to school students in various subjects, filmed in black and white, and intended to be received by 32 schools across the country. The Israeli Broadcasting Authority launched regular public transmissions on 2 May 1968, on the occasion of Israeli Independence Day. In 1970, it attempted moving entirely to UHF broadcasts, in an attempt to reduce its attraction among its neighboring Arab countries, which used VHF.

Israeli television began operations when American and European stations were switching to full-scale colour transmissions, but Israel's state-controlled stations broadcast only in black and white. According to Arnon Zuckerman, head of IBA's television department from 1973 to March 1979, Israeli prime minister Golda Meir described colour television as "artificial" and unnecessary. Yair Lapid, son of Tommy Lapid, the IBA director general from April 1979 to March 1984, claimed the IBA had the equipment for filming and broadcasting in colour for nearly a decade before putting it into use, and the introduction of colour transmissions was halted due to political pressure.

Newscasts and other regular productions were filmed using black and white cameras. However many special productions ordered from private Israeli studios (in particular Herzliya Studios) were filmed and taped in colour. Furthermore, Israeli television bought the rights to many American and British TV series and movies (broadcast with Hebrew-Arabic subtitles). The result was a mixture of colour and black and white broadcasts, which encouraged traders to import colour TV sets, especially as TV stations in neighbouring Jordan and Egypt started colour transmissions in 1974.

The Israeli government considered the import of colour televisions as a frivolous luxury that would increase social gaps. Therefore, the government ordered IBA and IETV to erase the colour from colour-taped telecasts by erasing the "burst phase" signal. The "damaged" signal triggered the "colour killer" mechanism, installed in colour TV sets to prevent the appearance of incidental colour spots on the screen when black-and-white films are broadcast or when the reception is disturbed. This method was named mekhikon (Hebrew: מחיקון "eraser"), and soon after its introduction, special TV sets with an anti-mekhikon (Hebrew: אנטי-מחיקון "anti-eraser") device were offered. This device reinstalled the burst phase signal according to several known standards. The client had to turn a switch until the pictures on the screen appeared in natural colours. According to a report in Yediot Aharonoth from January 1979 clients had to manipulate the switch every 15 minutes on average in normal conditions, or up to 10 times an hour when special problems occurred, in order to restore natural colours or if the picture suddenly turned black and white.