Call it "lifestyle" programming if you will: fashion, beauty, animals, house and garden, cookery, medical and health. Critics immediately dubbed it a "women's channel", soon to be joined by VijfTV, owned by SBS and known by wags as "WijfTV".

Vitaya, in any case, seems to have found its market. While the station only achieves a market share of 4%, in the target group of women aged 18 to 54, it gets 7.7%. The recipe has not only caught on with viewers, it has also influenced other TV channels, claims chief executive Yvette Mignolet. "We started with lifestyle programmes; now you find much more lifestyle on other channels," she says.

Most programming is store-bought: series like Ik Vertrek (from TROS in the Netherlands) which looks at Dutch families who go to live abroad; Top Chef (from Bravo in the US), hosted by Salman Rushdie's ex; or The Commander (from ITV in the UK), which is a new vehicle for Silent Witness's Amanda Burton.

Although, to be fair, most TV formats these days are adapted from international programming, VTM's Mijn Restaurant is modelled on an Australian original, VRT's Witte Raven on Faking It from Britain's Channel 4. And Vitaya is now also generating its own programmes, including cookery and news shows.

In its first decade, Vitaya has gone from one hour a day to a full 24-hour service, with programmes regularly repeated. It has also experimented with both narrow-casting and with the new fashionable 360º approach. Digital channel Vitaliteit features only health-related programmes like Diet Doctors and Farm of Fussy Eaters. And the company has launched Vitaya magazine, a joint venture with Sanoma Magazines, publishers of Humo and Goedele.

Vitaya has also gone into business with Trinny and Susannah to sell "Magic Knickers", with plans for an extended line of slimming clothes. October sees the re-launch of the website with links to social networks. And there's the promise of more user-generated content, a buzzword that translates to viewer home videos, blog posts and photo albums.

www.vitaya.be