Vice ventures into Indonesia

Vice is expanding into Indonesia by launching what it’s dubbed as a “full-scale operation” in the country that will produce local content and offer creative agency services.

The youth-skewing brand, backed by media giants including 21st Century Fox, A+E Networks and Disney, has secured multi-platform partnerships with news net Jawa Pos TV and Google that will bring linear and digital programming to viewers in the world’s fourth largest nation.

Jawa Pos TV will air Vice News Tonight and other shows during primetime, with content available in both English and Indonesian.

Vice will also create digital content “powered” by Google including Searchlight, which will showcase youth culture and nightlife across Indonesia to a global digital audience.

“With Indonesia’s massive young audience increasingly consuming video content across all screens, launching Vice here is a no brainer,” said Vice co-president James Schwab.

Mo Morris, MD of Vice Indonesia, said the company “will aim to produce some of the most unique content South-East Asia has ever seen. Indonesia is a great fit for Vice – a beautiful, turbulent, and progressive country with an engaged young audience hungry for a media company that speaks their own language.

“By partnering with Jawa Pos TV and Google, we will be able to meet young people on whichever screen they are consuming content.”

The expansion builds on Vice’s existing Asian operations in Japan and South Korea and follows the launch last month of Viceland blocks, which will eventually become 24-hour channels, in 18 South-East Asian territories through a partnership with local operator MultiChannels Asia.

Vice is also preparing to open offices in India and the Middle East, having already launched numerous networks around the world including in the US and Canada.

In May the firm hired former Sky and BBC execs to lead the programming side of linear channel Viceland in the UK, whose parent division yesterday unveiled revenue of £26m (US$32m) for 2015, a 59% rise.

Vice UK’s operating profit was up to £2.9m but it recorded a pre-tax loss of £145,000, down from a profit of £1.6m on the same time last year.

A local version of Viceland is set to launch in France later this month via an exclusive pact with Canal+, with a Dutch version debuting in 2107 through Liberty Global’s Ziggo.