Viceland (United States)
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Vice (formerly known as Viceland and also known as Vice TV) is an American
basic cable Cable television first became available in the United States in 1948. By 1989, 53 million U.S. households received cable television subscriptions, with 60 percent of all U.S. households doing so in 1992. with Data by SNL Kagan shows that about 58 ...
television channel that launched on December 2, 2019, replacing H2 on most multichannel television providers in the United States. It is a part of the Viceland family of television channels by Vice Media, itself a joint venture controlled by A&E Networks. Operating under the creative direction of film director
Spike Jonze Adam H. Spiegel (born October 22, 1969), known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes commercials, film, music videos, skateboard videos and television. Jonze began his ca ...
, the channel initially had a focus on lifestyle-oriented documentary and reality series aimed towards millennials, leveraging the resources of Vice's verticals with new original series, along with adaptations and reruns of existing Vice web series. The network's launch lineup featured programs hosted by existing Vice personalities such as Action Bronson and Thomas Morton, as well as notable figures such as Eddie Huang,
Elliot Page Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page; born February 21, 1987) is a Canadian actor. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Elliot Page, various accolades, including an Academy Award for Best Actress, Academy Award nomination, tw ...
, and
Lance Bangs Lance Bangs (born September 4, 1972) is an American filmmaker and music video director. He has created videos for Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Neutral Milk Hotel, Green Day, Arcade Fire, The Shins, The Thermals, Belle & Sebastian, Menomena, Yeah Yeah ...
. Due to low ratings, Vice would eventually engage in channel drift, shifting its focus to news and investigative programming. The channel adopted its current name on December 2, 2019.


History

In August 2014, A&E Networks acquired a 10% stake in Vice Media. On November 3, 2015, A&E Networks officially announced that Vice would "take over" H2 and re-launch it as a new service, Viceland, "as early as" February 2016.
Vice Media CEO Shane Smith stated that the channel was the "next step in the evolution of our brand and the first step in our global rollout of networks around the world", signifying that Vice would now be "platform-agnostic" with the addition of television to Vice's traditionally
digital media Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...
-oriented strategy, and be capable of producing high-quality media. In an interview with '' The Hollywood Reporter'', Smith explained that, despite Vice traditionally being oriented towards digital content, "75 percent of the world's advertising budget" was being spent on television advertising, and that partnering with an established media company gave Vice access to A&E's infrastructure and the 70 million homes that already received H2, rather than having to build Viceland entirely from scratch and negotiate carriage with providers. A&E Networks handles the distribution and operations of Viceland, and assists in advertising sales. Vice holds a 49% minority stake and control of international expansions. Smith stated that the network planned to "test new and innovative monetization strategies", including a goal for only 10 minutes of commercial advertising per-hour, and to leverage Vice's existing production capabilities and experience with native advertising to produce sponsored short-form content for advertisers to air in lieu of traditional commercials. The Walt Disney Company, who co-owns A&E Networks with
Hearst Corporation Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televis ...
, made a second 10% investment of $200 million in Vice Media to support the production of new programming. Prior to launch day, Vice ran newspaper ads for Viceland, containing only the network's name and a phone number that, when called, invited viewers to contribute answers to questions. On February 29, 2016, at 6:00 a.m. ET, the channel began broadcasting a countdown clock to the official relaunch as Viceland later in the evening, accompanied by footage of Vice executives answering the viewer-contributed calls as voice mail. The network's first program following the official launch was the series premiere of ''
Noisey ''Vice'' (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian-American magazine focused on lifestyle, arts, culture, and news/politics. Founded in 1994 in Montreal as an alternative punk magazine, the founders later launched the youth media company Vice Media, ...
'', following hip-hop musician Kendrick Lamar.


Programming

Vice's programming consists primarily of lifestyle-oriented documentaries and reality series aimed towards millennials, directed in Vice's trademark style of "character-driven documentaries". Creative director
Spike Jonze Adam H. Spiegel (born October 22, 1969), known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes commercials, film, music videos, skateboard videos and television. Jonze began his ca ...
stated that his goal for Viceland was to make its lineup have "a reason to exist and a strong point of view", rather than be just a "collection of shows". Jonze explained that Viceland would continue to reflect Vice's core mission of "trying to understand the world we live in by producing pieces about things we're curious about or confused about or that we think are funny. And if it doesn't have a strong point of view, then it shouldn't be on this channel." Smith stated that the channel's main goal was "trying not to be shitty". Viceland will focus primarily on lifestyle content; Vice News content will remain largely exclusive to Vice's existing joint venture with HBO. Jonze stated that unlike the HBO content, Viceland would be "far from objective eporting. Thirty different programs were developed for Viceland, including original series and expanded versions of existing Vice's web series. Original programs announced for the initial slate included Thomas Morton's ''Balls Deep'', ''Flophouse''— a series where
Lance Bangs Lance Bangs (born September 4, 1972) is an American filmmaker and music video director. He has created videos for Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Neutral Milk Hotel, Green Day, Arcade Fire, The Shins, The Thermals, Belle & Sebastian, Menomena, Yeah Yeah ...
follows the lives of up-and-coming comedians at underground stand-up events, ''Fuck, That's Delicious''— a television version of the food-oriented web series starring Action Bronson, '' Gaycation''— a series in which
Elliot Page Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page; born February 21, 1987) is a Canadian actor. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Elliot Page, various accolades, including an Academy Award for Best Actress, Academy Award nomination, tw ...
explores the LGBT cultures of different regions, ''
Huang's World ''Huang's World'' is a 2016 American television documentary series hosted by Eddie Huang. The series premiered on 28 April 2016 on Viceland Viceland (stylized in all caps), and Vice TV in the United States, are brands used for television cha ...
''— featuring Eddie Huang "exploring identity using food as an equalizer", King of the Road— a series following skaters on Thrasher Magazine's annual scavenger hunt, ''States of Undress''— a series focusing on fashion weeks around the world, the music documentary series ''Noisey'', ''Vice World of Sports'', and '' Weediquette''— which focuses on the mainstream cannabis culture and industry. Blocks of existing short-form content from Vice (''Vice Lab'') are also featured, along with other, acquired content— such as Friday-night airings of
cult film A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage ...
s accompanied by ''Vice Guide to Film'' documentaries on their directors. 10 of the 30 original programs planned were produced in Canada, including ''Cyberwar''— which focuses on cyberterrorism, and ''Dead Set on Life''— an expansion of Matty Matheson's food-oriented web series ''Keep It Canada''. A month after Viceland's initial launch, the network announced a second slate of shows, including '' Traveling the Stars: Action Bronson and Friends Watch ‘Ancient Aliens’''—a series in which Action Bronson watches episodes of ''
Ancient Aliens ''Ancient Aliens'' is an American television series that explores the pseudohistorical and pseudoarchaeological ancient astronauts hypothesis, past human- extraterrestrial contact, UFOs, government conspiracies and related pseudoscientific top ...
'' with guests whilst smoking marijuana, ''Black Market''— a series in which Michael K. Williams explores underground economies around the world, the U.S. premieres of ''Cyberwar'' and ''Dead Set on Life'', ''Party Legends''— a show about re-enactments of entertaining party stories, ''WOMAN''— a series in which Gloria Steinam features the lives of different women around the world, and ''VICE Does America''— which Abdullah Saeed and two VICE co-workers explore forgotten places of the world. Jonze stated that Viceland's original programs will have varying lengths, stating that "some are four episodes. Some are six. Some are eight. We're making everything based on what feels right", and that extended episodes may be possible if warranted. On May 3, 2016, Vice announced a partnership with ESPN (a fellow Disney/Hearst venture) to produce sports-oriented content for its properties. The deal also includes some content-sharing between ESPN and Viceland, such as encore airings of ESPN's ''
30 for 30 ''30 for 30'' is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes three "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series un ...
'' documentaries on Viceland, and airings of ''Vice World of Sports'' on ESPN. In June 2016, Viceland broadcast live coverage of the
Governors Ball Music Festival The Governors Ball Music Festival (commonly known as Governors Ball or Gov Ball) is a multi-day music festival held in New York City. Launched in 2011 by original founders Jordan Wolowitz, Tom Russell, Yoni Reisman, the festival features an arra ...
. On February 24, 2019, the channel launched ''Vice Live'', a two-hour live show airing Mondays through Thursdays at 9PM. The series was meant to anchor Viceland's primetime lineup and act as a replacement for '' Desus & Mero'' after that show's hosts moved to
Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
. Shortly after debuting, ''Vice Live'' was trimmed down to an hour and, due to low ratings, was eventually cancelled after its April 11, 2019 episode. In August 2019, Vice Media announced that the channel was merging with Vice News as a part of its shift from entertainment and lifestyle programming to a news-based lineup. Earlier that month, the company had also announced that ''
Vice News Tonight ''Vice News Tonight'' is an American news program currently broadcast on Vice on TV and originally broadcast on HBO as the channel's first-ever daily series, premiering October 2016. HBO cancelled the series after three seasons, ending September ...
'', which aired on HBO from 2016 to 2019, would re-launch in 2020 on the network.


Availability


Viewership

In August 2016, it was reported that average viewership of Viceland's programming was down by nearly half over H2 (in a period from November 28 to December 15, 2016, the network had average primetime viewership of 58,000 in the 18-49 demographic, down from 95,600 one year prior under H2). However, the median demographics of the network were beginning to skew younger than H2, and some premieres had achieved upwards of 100,000 viewers. A&E Networks CEO Nancy Dubuc defended the numbers, stating that the network's goal was to "attract an audience that is not watching much TV," and that they were "trying to pivot the conversation away from just purely ratings"—noting that Viceland had already received several
Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
nominations for its programs within its first three months of operation. Year-over-year, Viceland lost 42% of its viewership in 2017 compared to 2016. It lost another 10% in 2018. As of 2021, Vice TV is reported to be in 60 to 70 million households.


FAST channel

In May 2021, Vice Media launched a FAST (free ad-supported TV) channel for mobile devices and Smart TV's. Among the channel's programming are former Vice TV series, such as ''
Huang's World ''Huang's World'' is a 2016 American television documentary series hosted by Eddie Huang. The series premiered on 28 April 2016 on Viceland Viceland (stylized in all caps), and Vice TV in the United States, are brands used for television cha ...
'', ''Noisey'', and ''Vice Essentials''. The channel is currently available on The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus and Tubi TV


See also

*
H2 (American TV channel) H2 (formerly History International) was an American specialty television channel that was owned by A+E Networks (a joint venture between the Hearst Corporation and the Disney–ABC Television Group), available on multi-channel television provide ...


Notes


References


External links

* {{Commons category, Vice (TV channel) English-language television stations in the United States . Vice Media A&E Networks Joint ventures Television channels and stations established in 2016