Vice Media to launch new Viceland TV channel on Sky and Now TV in September
Vice Media, the group behind the millennials' favourite website Vice News, will launch a 24-hour television channel called Viceland on Sky and Sky's online streaming service Now TV this September.
The 24-hour channel will be programmed, developed and produced in-house by Vice's creative team and will be available for all Sky TV customers in their basic TV subscription packages as part of a non-exclusive deal between Sky and Vice Media.
Now TV Entertainment Pass customers will be able to watch the channel on demand.
Viceland was launched in the US and Canada in February 2016 with hundreds of hours of original programming, while the new UK channel will feature a slate of new Vice-produced programming "a cast of talent" familiar and new to British and Irish audiences.
Oscar-winning film director Spike Jonze is serving as co-president of Viceland and is overseeing the development of the new channel's creation and production.
"Vice has become synonymous with fresh and original content which has huge appeal for younger audiences," Stephen van Rooyen, chief marketing, sales and digital officer at Sky, said.
Vice-produced programming and documentary content has gained increasing popularity and critical acclaim over the past couple of years. Vice News gained four News and Documentary Emmy Award nominations last year and also won 10 Webby Awards for its website, writing and video content.
"This is the biggest move yet in our long love affair with our British and Irish audience," Shane Smith, Vice co-founder and chief executive, said.
"Viceland is going to give them a whole new way to experience VICE content—on their own televisions, around the clock."
Vice's website and media channel stem from the original Vice magazine co-founded by Shane Smith, Gavin McInnes and Suroosh Alvi in Montreal in 1994, which focused on music, drugs and trends not being written about in other print media at the time.