The entrepreneurs behind the French-language news channel LN24 have plans to also start a TV station in Flanders. They are still looking for a financial partner.
Many details about the Flemish version of LN24 are not yet known, but sources confirm the ambition to launch this year. Below the language boundary, the channel, which broadcasts news and debates around the clock, has been active since September 2019.
‘The start-up of LN24 in French-speaking Belgium took almost a year. In the meantime, we have the experience and the structures to do this faster in Flanders’, it sounds. There is no concrete timing, but the start would ‘certainly take place this year’. This may be under a different brand name than LN24 (LN is the abbreviation for ‘Les News’).
Start-up capital of several million
For the Flemish start, the company is still looking for a partner in Flanders, and is establishing contacts with various companies, ‘both from the media sector and beyond’. According to our information, the company is looking for several million euros.
In the meantime, LN24 seems to be gaining traction in the south of the country. With the morning program ‘La Matinale’, the channel already has more than 25 percent market share in its main target group (25 to 54 year olds in social groups 1 to 4). The evening program ‘Les visiteurs du soir’ also saw the audience increase steadily. LN24 now claims a total weekly reach of 2.5 million viewers.
Flanders is a logical extension for the broadcaster. Not only because of the overlap in news stories, but also and especially because many advertisers are asking for national reach. It is not yet clear who will recruit advertising in Flanders. In French-speaking Belgium, LN24 works together with RMB, the advertising agency that also sells advertising space on the public channel RTBF.