We attended the launch of T18, the new DTT channel

At 7:45 p.m. this Friday evening, a row of slightly strained smiles greeted the viewer to officially launch the latest addition to DTT. "T18, let's go!" There was no big red button to launch it into orbit, but a sort of lever operated by three people, in the control room, by the entire organizational chart of the channel: the president of T18, Christopher Baldelli, the boss of the press group that owns it (CMI France), Valérie Salomon, and the chairman of the supervisory board of the said group, Denis Olivennes (also CEO of the holding company that owns Libération ). On set, Laurent Ruquier put on his gala jacket for the occasion, and introduced the two other faces that we will regularly see on air, the journalists Matthieu Croissandeau and Ava Djamshidi. Backstage, a few meters away, a hundred or so guests and journalists (including Libération ) crowded around for this launch that was anything but flashy - champagne and petits fours, with Inès de la Fressange and Raphaël Enthoven in attendance. On air, we were precisely the opposite of the futuristic ballets and the parade of stars at the glittering inauguration of Berlusconi's Five in 1986.