Big Brother Israel refuses to stop filming, installing bomb shelters for housemates instead

Instead of stopping the filming, Big Brother Israel decided to install alarms and a bomb shelter for the housemates.

17:13 31 July 2014

The Middle East’s entertainment business has lost £15million due to the ongoing Gaza conflict but broadcasting giant Keshet isn’t going out without a fight; the broadcaster has refused to stop the filming of Big Brother.

Instead it provided a bomb shelter for the housemates on the site in the village of Neve Ilan, west of Jerusalem.

The alarms in the property, which are designed to alert the housemates to head for the shelter, have already been used twice.

Ran Telem, Keshet’s vice president of programming, said: ‘The audience appreciates the break they get, so we try very hard despite the situation to keep it on the air.

'The contract we have with the viewers at home is that when there is a significant development, we return to the news telecast at once.’

However, critics claim that the move is solely for Keshet to make a profit at a time of crisis.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the show was more than halfway through its latest season when the war began earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the conflict, which already taken the lives of 1,400 people who are mostly civilians, is costing broadcasters in Israel huge amount of money as news programmes are now dominating TV schedules.