France Televisions to launch news channel

French public broadcaster France Televisions is planning a 24/7 digital news channel, according to Le Figaro.

A special working group within the broadcaster is currently looking at bringing the various editorial groups in the organisation together, especially looking at the news output.

The group is also set to announce the launch of an all-news channel. The broadcaster has been very successful with its news website FranceTVinfo, which was launched at the end of 2011 and has record number of visitors, Broadband TV News reports.

Last October, there were around 6.55 million unique visitors to the news site.

The proposed news channel would compete with the existing news channels from three private broadcasters. The French government also sponsors the international news channel France24, which is available on most TV distribution platforms as well as on DTT in the greater Paris area.