The Wall Street Journal reports that job cuts at Viceland, some of which took place Thursday, affect about 15 people across multiple departments such as programming, marketing and research. The staff reduction is part of a move away from entertainment and lifestyle programming. Journal subscribers can read the full story here.
Vice is looking for a new Canadian roost for its Viceland cable network. The bootstrapping media company and the Canadian cable distributor have ended a joint venture in a Vice production studio and Viceland.
Exclusives
Vice may need to recheck its hipster calibrations: Viceland, its TV network that has barely made a tremor on U.S. television, has landed in the U.K. with just as minimal an impact. The channel debuted with an average audience of 5,500 from 8 p.m. until 2 a.m. according to Barb data.
ESPN and Vice are collaborating on content in a deal that will see films from ESPN’s 30 for 30 series airing on the new Viceland network and Vice Sports producing new series for ESPN, the companies said today. One curious note in the announcement came via ESPN President John Skipper on his upstart new partner: “I applaud [Vice CEO] Shane [Smith] for understanding that television is the smartest path to worldwide leadership.”
The bigger the boasts, the harder the pile-on when you don’t make good on them, it seems. So it goes with Viceland, which Oriana Schwindt reports is averaging just 55,000 viewers a day according to Rentrak data, 77% lower than H2 (the network it replaced) had in the last three weeks of its doomed existence.
Several digital media companies have expressed interest in TV, but they’re all far behind Vice Media so far.
Nine years after Viacom gave him the money to create an online TV network, Vice Media CEO Shane Smith is trying to turn it into the next MTV. Today, Smith will flip the switch on Viceland, a cable network formerly known as H2 that is co-owned and programmed by the New York-based media company. The network will air programs with names like Weediquette and Gaycation that burnish Vice’s reputation for brash, blunt cultural commentary.
NEW YORK (AP) — The new Viceland cable channel takes to the air Monday with the ultimate in user-generated programming. The network set up a phone number a few […]
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — The new Viceland cable channel that launches next month will have series with actress Ellen Page exploring gay and lesbian life around the world, actor Michael […]
Vice’s Shane Smith has promised a radical reinvention of TV advertising with the launch of his new channel Viceland early next year, a partnership with A+E Networks. What that means remains highly unclear to marketers, who badly want Vice’s millennial male audience but have few guarantees that its hazy ad plans will work.
