Summing up a 50-year career in Israeli television, iconic anchorman Haim Yavin will stop broadcasting the Mabat news show in August.

He retires at the end of August 2007, but that doesn't mean Israelis won't be able to see the most familiar face on Israeli television again: Yavin, 74, will be broadcasting a current events show on Channel 1.

Yedioth Ahronoth reported on "Mr Television's" retirement today.

Yavin began his media career as a radio broadcaster, in 1956, and later became one of the founders of Israeli television.

His has been the face of Israeli news from its very first show, in July 1968. Nine years later, in 1977, when tracking the developments in the elections, he coined the now-trite phrase "Mahapach" - revolution. That's when Likud unseated Labor for the first time. There have been many a mahapach since then.

During the 1980s, Yavin managed Israel television, and twice served as its envoy to the United States and Europe. As the millennium ended, he had a mahapach of his own: Yavin abandoned his home, Channel 1, for Channel 2.  But it didn't last: before long Mr Television was back on the government channel.

Over the years he has created several documentary sries, including a series on the settlers, which was broadcast on Channel 2.

Yavin commented today that the change will be "good for Mabat, and good for me. After almost 40 years on the job, I feel it's time. It is not easy: I've been associated with Mabat since its birth, but a person should know when to vacate the seat."