A backlight system for illuminating a display device comprises a light-emitting panel (1) having a front wall, an opposing rear wall and edge areas (4). At least one of the edge areas (4) is light-transmitting and associated with a light source. The light source associated with the light-transmitting edge areas (4) of the light-emitting panel (1) comprises symmetric clusters (C) of light-emitting diodes having three mutually different light emission wavelengths, for example symmetric clusters (C) of blue, green and red LEDs (6G, 6B, 6R, 6B′, 6G′; 6G, 6B, 6R, 6B′, 6G′; . . . ).