Digitaltveurope.com

RTL Belgium has launched a new digital platform dedicated to pop culture called Check.

The service will host five video formats, an internet radio station covering rap and new pop music, an events section dedicated to festivals and concerts, and an editorial section with articles about lifestyle, food, music and festivals.

The five video formats include: Check Mag, a 15-minute tour of artists’ cultural, social and musical influences, hosted by RTL journalist and Check editor-in-chief Martin Vachiery; Check Food, in which Belgian rapper Caballero goes on a culinary journey around the country; and Check City, which follows journalist Elsa Fralon’s “societal odyssey” around different neighbourhoods.

The other two video formats are music-focused 3D-animated clip series Check Live; and Check Summer, which will go behind the scenes with artists at music festivals.

“Our original aim was to revitalise one of Radio Contact’s web radios, which was kind of stagnating for a few years,” said Eric Adelbrecht, managing director of RTL Belgium’s radio stations.

“When we were literally starting out from a blank piece of paper, the team chanced across Martin Vachiery, who had already come up with some ideas in his own. These ideas duly blossomed into an irresistible joint project that embarked on a number of trajectories utterly distinct from an approach involving simply streaming music.”

Check is primarily targeted at “18 to 35-year-old urbanites” and some of its video content will also be available on a catch-up basis on RTL Play, according to Adelbrecht.

“This initial phase will focus on promoting this new offering and seeing if it can find an audience and will work out, which we all very much hope will be the case,” he said.