Albert Heijn is claming to be he world’s first supermarket group to have its own online television broadcasting programme, the Financieele Dagblad said on Wednesday.

Appie Today offers daily shows, news and series on themes related to eating and food.

The Dutch-language films are now seen only on external channels such as YouTube, but the company will develop its own video platform which will broadcast independently before the end of the year.

The FD says ‘social broadcasters’ like Albert Heijn are a new trend. Shell, for example, makes short films about visitors to a petrol station and property broker Cushman & Wakefield publishes blogs which are aimed at encouraging young people to visit shops, the paper said.