Corus is adding to its portfolio of women’s channels with Viva, a new cable outlet aimed at women aged 40 to 64 due to launch next month following the rebranding of Canadian Learning Television.

Corus, which picked up the former CHUM channel from CTVglobemedia earlier this year, will launch Viva on Nov. 3, reaching five million households.

The channel ‘will provide boomer women with the kind of programming that reflects who they are and where they are at this time in their lives,’ said Corus pay and specialty EVP Susan Ross in a statement. Corus also owns Cosmopolitan TV and W Network.

Viva’s programming slate will focus on dramas, films and lifestyle programming, while sticking to the conditions of CLT’s licence, says Corus. That licence places great emphasis on educational programming, however. No execs at Corus were available to say how the new shows will fit within the old licence.

The company says new and original Canadian programming is in production and will join the slate in early 2009. In the meantime, the Viva lineup will include the Canadian premiere of Lost in Austen, a four-part program about a woman obsessed with Jane Austen novels that won acclaim in the U.K. on ITV. The 2005 Geena Davis series Commander in Chief will air Mondays through Thursdays.

From Media in Canada