New channel

Paris (Reuter) - Uninterested in audience ratings and determined to 'disturb', a Franco- German cultural channel began broadcasting on network television in France yesterday. Inviting viewers to 'the land of your imagination' Arte, a bilingual station owned by the two states, promised to 'change your life'. The brainchild of President Francois Mitterrand and Chancellor Helmut Kohl, it was launched four months ago on cable networks. 'I am 150 per cent for and with the Germans,' the film actor Gerard Depardieu told Arte viewers.