Vice branches into Balkans

The Serbian version of youth-skewing media brand Vice will launch next month and produce content for all Balkan countries via the company’s relationship with Greece’s Antenna Group.

The rapidly growing global news operation has opened its 36th newsroom in Belgrade and intends to create original content aimed primarily at 18-32 year-olds.

“After the success of Vice Greece, we are very excited to bring this powerful media platform to Serbia and other countries of the region where Antenna is present,” said the latter’s CEO Theodore Kyriakou.

“Vice is the leader in production and distribution of contemporary media content and this partnership is testimony to our commitment to invest more into this market and bring the most innovative products and services to our audiences.”

Besides Serbia, Antenna has operations in Montenegro and Slovenia in the former Yugoslavia. It linked up with Vice Media at the beginning of the year, in a deal that will see the maverick multimedia firm expand across south east Europe.

Vice will use the partnership to develop and produce new content covering news, fashion, sports and cultural topics in the region with content available locally via mobile devices and across the firm’s international channels.

The rapidly growing global news operation will also be opening newsrooms in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Mexico.

The moves come after Vice recently secured US$500m of investment, with US$250m coming from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Technology Crossover Ventures in September and the same amount from A+E Networks in August. Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox also paid US$70m for a 5% stake in the business last year.

The Belgrade-based Serbian office will be headed by Daniel Bukumirovic — previously editor-in-chief of Telekom Srbija’s news portal Mondo — with a staff of six. Among them is Galeb Nikacevic, former presenter of regional MTV Adria.