The first regular TV broadcasts by a public broadcaster in Belgium started exactly seventy years ago.
In Elsene (Brussels) on Saturday 31 October 1953 nerves are tense in the Flagey Building: after a few experiments on the occasion of major events including the coronation of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth on 2 June, regular television broadcasts start in Flanders and French-speaking Belgium for the first time.
The National Institute for Radio Broadcasting, the NIR takes charge of the broadcasts. It’s the forerunner of today's VRT and Francophone counterpart, the RTBF. Founded in 1930 as a broadcaster on the model of the BBC it will continue to provide radio and TV broadcasts in Belgium until 1960.
A broadcast schedule of the programmes that viewers will see on the first night of real television services appears in the “Radio Week” magazine.
The schedule shows Dutch-language broadcasts starting at 7.15pm with a test card, followed by opening pictures at 7.25pm. At 7.30pm, "Panorama" is aired, the first Flemish TV news.
The first edition features King Boudewijn’s visit to Seraing following the mine disaster on 24 October, the premiere of a film on the conquest of Everest in the presence of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth as well as a report on the petrol strike in London.