In the last couple of weeks, the Flemish channels have announced their autumn schedules. For the VRT, the public-sector leader, it's a matter of justifying the subsidy on which they operate. For VTM, the second front-runner, it's a matter of consolidating a virtually unassailable position.

For VT4, who now place themselves as "challenger" (in recognition that the Big Two have the market carved up), it's a matter of staying on the radar - by cannibalising the internet, old Clive James shows, and America's Unfunniest Clips of Babies Hurting Themselves.

And what can we expect this season? Read on.

VRT

The VRT has some blue-chip programmes that are rarely watched by foreigners: early evening quiz Blokken is in some ways the biggest show on TV, as other channels have to beat the effect it has on people's viewing. Among the others: De Pappenheimers (quiz), Witse (crime series), Thuis (soap), FC De Kampioenen (comedy). They're all back, together with Los zand (Loose Sand), a home-made drama in which three Flemish couples go to Africa.

Los zand falls into the category already occupied by series like Van vlees en bloed, De smaak van De Keyser and Katarakt: essentially extended movies, in line with the trend in American TV to create series that belong in the canon of "moving-image literature", like, say, The Sopranos and The Wire.

The VRT is not immune to the temptation of the archive, with a show called De jaren stillekes (The Quiet Years), where Steven Van Herreweghe invites a guest to choose the best TV moments from across the world. Everything stands or falls on the guest, otherwise it's a clip show like any other.

VTM

VTM discovered with Sara the power of the tele-novella, a series that combines the attractive power of a soap and the finite nature of a story-arc. They followed Sara with LouisLouise. Now it's the turn of David, about a well-to-do family who finds a castaway on a desert island and brings him back home to Flanders.

Otherwise, VTM will dominate the airwaves with an on-screen search for a replacement for Katrien from singing group K3. The channel's other big show will be So You Think You Can Dance?, which will take some famous Flemings and try to humiliate them for the enjoyment of the viewing public, unless they're able to dance, as some people reportedly can.

VT4

VT4 and its cousin VijfTV took the most trouble to publicise their autumn season, with live performances at Brussels' Ancienne Belgique from Air Traffic and A-Ha, to entertain press, advertisers and various other guests.

All that trouble to fulfil the proverb about empty vessels: the VT4 season is definitely lacklustre.

The main attractions are a new series of ratings success The Block, in which four couples compete to renovate lofts, this year in Ghent. Unlike in previous years, the competitors are given no budget, which not only makes the game harder, but is symptomatic of parent company SBS, who have brought in new CEO Thierry Tacheny to cut costs and improve margins in times of depleted revenue.

The other new arrival is Hole in the Wall, presented by Roos Van Acker, which is a straight rip-off of the Japanese game of human Tetris, a smash on YouTube. Van Acker told Flanders Today that the game is onnozel - a Flemish word somewhere between "silly" and "idiotic". "But great fun," she adds. Teams of famous Flemings take part, but they might as well be anyone because the game is hilarious whoever is playing it.

It's not exactly ground-breaking TV, and nor is De 40, which is recycled TV at its most shameless: each week it screens the 40 Most Something clips; 40 funniest YouTube videos, 40 worst auditions, 40 bloopers, 40 wedding videos and on and on.

The TV viewer is by now aware of buzzwords and isn't fooled: Monday is "true stories," which is code for American Movie-of-the-Week style fare; Friday is Movie Classics, in which they try to make a virtue out of the necessity of running old warhorses like Platoon, Top Gun and Terminator, which even Arnold must by now be sick of watching.

On the plus side, there are new episodes of series like season five of Lost (which started on 24 August), CSI NY, Las Vegas, NCIS LA and Flashpoint.

Over on VijfTV, they've had to put up with losing Komen eten to the main channel, but they still have ER and Grey's Anatomy every day, reality shows like My Supersweet Sixteen and series like The L Word and Private Practice, both of which are aimed at the female target audience, and at men who like foxy ladies.

Vitaya

We wrote last week about Vitaya's 10th anniversary, without realising the runt of the litter would pull out the biggest coup of the whole autumn season, with a total re-run from season one of Desperate Housewives.

"I'm very happy with the arrival of a top international series like Desperate Housewives on Vitaya," says Yvette Mignolet, CEO of Media ad Infinitum, the company that runs Vitaya. "This successful series is strategically very important for us and will reinforce Vitaya's profile as a channel with the feminine touch." You can say that again.

They'll also be showing The Chopping Block, the ill-fated NBC show featuring Marco Pierre White and eight couples battling to win their own restaurant. NBC cancelled the show while it was still running and put the last episodes on YouTube. Obviously, it's a little unexciting, unless you happen to be as big a fan of White as your correspondent. This is the man who taught Gordon Ramsay everything he knows, except how to be charismatic.