Vice gets Disney cash, preps net

Disney will become the latest US media giant to take a stake in Vice Media, which has also unveiled its new stateside TV network.

Smith: Viceland & Disney cash

The Mouse House is investing US$200m in Vice according to the Financial Times, which follows similar stakes taken by the likes of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, A+E Networks and the Technology Crossover Venture fund.

A+E and Vice have also revealed details of its much-anticipated new channel in the US, which is set to launch early next year.

Viceland (working title) will replace A+E Networks’ channel brand H2 and has film maker Spike Jonze on board as creative director. The firm revealed a slew of TV shows in May, prior to confirmation of the move, with programming including Gaycation, hosted by actor Ellen Page, and Huang’s World, featuring chef Eddie Huang.

Jonze said: “It feels like most channels are just a collection of shows. We wanted Viceland to be different, to feel like everything on there has a reason to exist and a strong point of view.”

A+E, which is jointly owned by Disney and the Hearst Corportation, shelled out US$250m for a 10% stake in the firm last year, which valued the company at US$2.5bn at the time.

Nancy Dubuc, A&E president and CEO, said the brand “represents a strategic fit and a new direction for the future of our portfolio of media assets. Vice has a bold voice and a distinctive model in the marketplace.”

A statement added that the channel would “feature hundreds of hours of completely new programming developed and produced entirely in-house by the young creative minds that are the heart and soul of Vice.”

Shane Smith, Vice co-founder and CEO, said: “This network is the next step in the evolution of our brand and the first step in our global roll-out of networks around the world.”

He added that the firm would test out branded content on the channel, which will allow Vice “to be truly platform agnostic and enable our audience to view our content wherever they want”.

Last week Vice confirmed it was talking to the likes of Netflix, ITV and Discovery Communications about plans to launch a dozen TV networks across Europe.

C21 later revealed it was also in the process of expanding its Eastern European venture with Greece’s Antenna Group into new territories.