Viceland was a Canadian pay television

channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

. It was owned by Vice Network Canada, Inc., which was owned by

Rogers Media Rogers Media Inc., operating as Rogers Sports & Media, is a Canadian subsidiary of Rogers Communications that owns the company's mass media and sports properties, such as the Citytv and Omni Television terrestrial television stations, Sportsnet, ...

with minority ownership by Vice Media. It was a Canadian version of Viceland, broadcasting lifestyle-oriented documentary and reality series aimed towards a young adult demographic. The network was originally established as a Canadian version of the U.S. network The Biography Channel, as a joint venture between Rogers,

Shaw Communications Shaw Communications Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications company which provides telephone, Internet, television, and mobile services. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Shaw provides home telecommunications services primarily in Alberta and Br ...

, and A&E Networks. Shaw and A&E later sold their shares to Rogers. As part of a larger licensing agreement with A&E Networks, Shaw launched a Canadian version of Biography Channel's successor in the U.S.,

FYI "FYI" is a common abbreviation of "for your information" (or "for your interest"). "FYI" is commonly used in email, instant messaging and other messages to indicate an informational message, with an intent to communicate to the receiver that they ...

, in 2014. On November 5, 2015, Rogers announced that it had partnered with Vice to be the Canadian launch partner for its new television brand Viceland, which replaced H2 in the U.S. as part of a similar joint venture with A&E. Vice Media acquired a 30% minority stake in the Canadian network. After low viewership and profitability, Rogers and Vice announced the termination of the partnership, and the complete shutdown of the channel effective March 31, 2018.

History

As The Biography Channel

Licensed as '' The Biography Channel'' by the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...

(CRTC) on November 24, 2000; the channel was launched on September 7, 2001 as a joint venture between Rogers Media (33.34%),

(33.33%) and A&E Networks (33.33%)—who owned the network's American counterpart. In 2006, both Shaw and A&E sold their interests in the channel to Rogers. The U.S. Biography Channel relaunched as

on July 7, 2014; Shaw's

Twist TV FYI (stylized as fyi,) was a former Canadian English language specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment. Based on the American cable network of the same name, the channel features lifestyle programming, with a mix of reality, culinary, home ...

became a Canadian version of FYI on September 1, 2014.

As Viceland

On November 5, 2015, Rogers announced that it would serve as the Canadian partner for Viceland, a new millennial-focused channel programmed by Vice Media, and that The Biography Channel would be rebranded to Viceland. Vice Media had partnered with A&E Networks (who owns 10% of the company) to launch Viceland in the U.S. as a replacement for H2. Rogers and Vice Media had already begun to collaborate in October 2014, when Vice announced a CDN$100 million joint venture with Rogers to build a studio in Toronto's Liberty Village neighbourhood for producing original content. Rogers also announced an intent to launch Vice-branded television and digital properties in Canada in 2015. Rogers CEO Guy Laurence described the proposed studio as "a powerhouse for Canadian digital content focused on 18- to 34-year-olds" which would be "exciting" and "provocative". In 2015, Rogers-owned television network

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

introduced ''Vice on City''—an anthology series featuring short-form content produced by Vice's Canadian reporters. Vice Media was originally established in Montreal, but had moved to New York City due to difficulties in reaching a sufficient

scale Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

in Canada at the time. The company believed that Rogers' investment in Vice helped to better achieve these goals. Pre-launch programming for Viceland began at 5:00 a.m. ET on February 29, 2016 with ''Bar Talk'', an hour-long special featuring Vice Canada's head of content Patrick McGuire, followed by a countdown to the official launch later in the day. In November 2017, ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' reported that Rogers intended to cease providing funding to Viceland in early 2018, citing inside reports of low viewership and unprofitability. Representatives of both companies to declined to comment. On January 22, 2018, Rogers and Vice jointly announced a termination of their partnership. The channel shut down on March 31, 2018, and its licence was revoked by request of Vice Network Canada on April 1. Immediately after that, the channel space that was created by The Biography Channel in 2001 simply ceased to exist. Vice will inherit complete ownership of the Toronto studio. Several small providers replaced it with FX, giving it wider distribution. On August 16, 2018, Vice announced a long-term output deal with Bell Media. Viceland was not relaunched, but the new deal saw its content dispersed across some Bell-owned services such as

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

(also known as MTV Canada),

Much Much may refer to: *Much (TV channel), a cable network in Canada and its domestic and international spin-offs *Much TV, a satellite cable channel in Taiwan * ''Much'' (album), a 2001 album by Ten Shekel Shirt * Much the Miller's Son, one of Robin ...

, and

CraveTV Crave (initially named CraveTV) is a Canadian subscription video on demand service owned by Bell Media. The service competes directly with other subscription-based over-the-top streaming services operating in Canada, primarily American-based se ...

Programming

Vice co-founder Suroosh Alvi stated that Viceland would view its Canadian productions as being of global interest, as opposed to a regulatory obligation of little interest of non-Canadians; one-third of the network's first slate of original programming was produced in Canada, including ''Cyberwar'' and ''

Dead Set on Life ''Dead Set on Life'' is a Canadian culinary travel television series, which premiered in 2016 on Viceland.

''. Rogers also contributed original programming, such as the scripted comedies '' Nirvanna the Band the Show'' and ''

Fubar Age of Computer ''Fubar Age of Computer'' is a Canadian mockumentary television series based on the films of the same name. Starring David Lawrence and Paul J. Spence, the series premiered on Viceland on November 3, 2017 and on City on November 5, 2017. Prem ...

''.

References

External links