Viceland

Viceland (stylized in all caps; also known as Vice TV in the United States) is a brand used for television channels owned and programmed by Vice Media. The brand launched on February 29, 2016, with two cable channels in North America. The American version (rebranded from H2) is a joint venture majority-owned by A&E Networks (who owns a stake in Vice Media, alongside a separate ownership stake by A&E's co-owner, The Walt Disney Company). A Canadian version (rebranded from a domestic version of former A&E sibling, Bio) operated as a Category A-licensed specialty channel majority-owned by Rogers Media; it was discontinued on March 31, 2018.

Operating under the creative direction of film director Spike Jonze, Viceland was a lifestyle-oriented channel that primarily aired documentary and reality series aimed towards millennials, with new original series, along with adaptations of and reruns of existing Vice web series. Some of the network's launch programs were hosted by existing Vice personalities such as Action Bronson and Thomas Morton, as well as notable figures such as Eddie Huang, Elliot Page, and Lance Bangs.

Vice's first foray into television was VBS.tv, an online video joint venture with Viacom's MTV Networks division (specifically, MTV and Logo TV). As part of the venture, MTV Networks had international television distribution rights for the content produced for VBS.tv, resulting in the creation of television specials that compiled content from the service (in the U.S., these aired on MTV2). Vice later produced a series for MTV, The Vice Guide to Everything. In 2013, Vice premiered a self-titled newsmagazine series for HBO. The following year, HBO's parent company Time Warner expressed interest in acquiring a stake in Vice, and proposed the possibility of Vice taking over its struggling cable news channel HLN, and revamping it as a millennial-focused service drawing from its own content. However, the deal fell through due to concerns regarding editorial control.

On August 29, 2014, A&E Networks—a joint venture of Hearst Corporation and The Walt Disney Company—acquired a 10% minority stake in Vice Media for $250 million. On October 30, 2014, Vice announced a CDN$100 million joint venture with Canadian media conglomerate Rogers Communications, to build a studio in Toronto's Liberty Village neighborhood for producing original content. Rogers holds the minority 30% stake of the Vice Canada Studio in Toronto. 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 introduced Vice on City—an anthology series featuring short-form content produced by Vice's Canadian outlets and reporters. The Vice company had previously moved from Montreal to New York City due to difficulties in reaching a sufficient scale in Canada at the time. The company believed that Rogers' investment in Vice helped to better achieve these goals.

Viceland's programming consists primarily of lifestyle-oriented documentaries and reality series aimed towards millennials, directed in Vice's trademark style of "character-driven documentaries". Creative director Spike Jonze stated that his goal for Viceland was to make its lineup have "a reason to exist and a strong point of view", rather than be just a "collection of shows". Jonze explained that Viceland would continue to reflect Vice's core mission of "trying to understand the world we live in by producing pieces about things we're curious about or confused about or that we think are funny. And if it doesn't have a strong point of view, then it shouldn't be on this channel." Vice co-founder and CEO Shane Smith stated that the channel's main goal was "trying not to be shitty". Viceland originally focused primarily on lifestyle content; in the U.S., Vice News content (including its series Vice News Tonight) would remain largely exclusive to Vice's existing joint venture with HBO. Jonze stated that unlike the HBO content, Viceland would be "far from objective [reporting]".

Vice Media plans to enter into similar partnerships in international markets to further expand Viceland. The Walt Disney Company, who co-owns A&E Networks with Hearst Corporation, made a second 10% investment of $200 million in Vice Media to support the production of new programming.

Thirty different programs were developed for Viceland, including original series and expanded versions of existing Vice's web series. Original programs announced for the initial slate included Thomas Morton's Balls Deep, Flophouse— a series where Lance Bangs follows the lives of up-and-coming comedians at underground stand-up events, F**k, That's Delicious— a television version of the food-oriented web series starring Action Bronson, Gaycation— a series in which Elliot Page explores the LGBT cultures of different regions, Huang's World— featuring Eddie Huang "exploring identity using food as an equalizer", King of the Road— a series following skaters on Thrasher Magazine's annual scavenger hunt, States of Undress— a series focusing on fashion weeks around the world, the music documentary series Noisey, Vice World of Sports, and Weediquette— which focuses on the mainstream cannabis culture and industry. Blocks of existing short-form content from Vice (Vice Lab) are also featured, along with other, acquired content— such as Friday-night airings of cult films accompanied by Vice Guide to Film documentaries on their directors. Ten of the thirty original programs planned were produced in Canada, including Cyberwar— which focuses on cyberterrorism, and Dead Set on Life— an expansion of Matty Matheson's food-oriented web series Keep It Canada.

Prior to its North American launch, Vice ran newspaper ads for Viceland, containing only the network's name and a phone number that, when called, invited viewers to contribute answers to questions. Pre-launch programming for Viceland began on February 29, 2016, at 5:00 a.m. ET in Canada (with Bar Talk, a one-hour special hosted by Vice Canada's head of content Patrick McGuire), and on the same day at 6:00 a.m. ET in the United States, broadcasting a countdown clock to the official launch later in the evening, accompanied by footage of Vice executives answering the viewer-contributed calls as voice mail. The first program following the countdown was the series premiere of Noisey, following hip-hop musician Kendrick Lamar.