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. 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 two commercial niche channels: an Israeli Russian-speaking channel (in 2002) and a channel of Israeli popular music (in 2003). Colour transmissions were introduced gradually around 1980. Satellite-based multichannel service has been available since 2000. Almost 75% of the population is subscribed to pay TV systems which are provided either by a cable service called "HOT", or by a satellite service called "yes".