Brussels (AFP)

The television channel LN24, the first to offer continuous news in Belgium, was officially launched on Monday night, organizing its first live stage from the European Parliament to praise its "opening to the world".

The French channel, already on the internet since the spring, began broadcasting on the cable at 20:00 local time (18:00 GMT), distributed by all local operators, and also visible in the Dutch-speaking part of the country.

"Tonight, all together, we live a very important episode in the history of Belgian media," said the journalist Catarina Letor, during the antenna taking alongside his colleague Maxime Binet.

The duo hosted a short discussion with Franco-Moroccan Ilham Kadri, CEO of the Belgian group Solvay (one of the world leaders in chemistry), the Belgian diplomat Didier Reynders and the successful French writer Eric- Emmanuel Schmitt. These three personalities embody the three themes that the channel wants to address in priority: economy, politics and culture.

LN24, short for "The News 24", was created by Boris Portnoy, former boss of the audiovisual production company Keynews, associated with Belgian journalists Joan Condijts and Martin Buxant.

The cast of columnists is largely French since Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, Eric Naulleau, Christine Ockrent (born in Brussels) or the former minister Roselyne Bachelot will take turns to lead a section "Vu de France" in the morning.

"This is a blank page I love it," told AFP a smiling PPDA, also speaking of "a great initiative that goes with the times".

The 72-year-old former TV presenter in France, who was 72 this month, was one of around 200 guests at the launch party, including Belgian Prime Minister and future President of the European Council, Charles Michel.

The new channel, which ultimately expects to employ 45 journalists (22 have signed a CDI for now), arrives in the media landscape to shake RTL-TVI and RTBF, the two major French-language channels, whose TV news is very watched.

"We believe that there is a third way possible," told AFP Information Director Joan Condijts, former editor of the daily L'Echo.

LN24, financially supported by four private companies including Besix (BTP) and Belfius (bank), will operate with an operating budget of 6.5 million euros for the first two years. It intends to achieve financial equilibrium in 2022.

On the audience side, it ultimately aims at 2% (or 90,000 viewers), which is four times more than LCI, the only comparable reference among French-language news channels, since BFMTV is no longer distributed on cable in Belgium.

© 2019 AFP