VICE has come a long way from Dos and Don’ts. CEO Shane Smith announced the growing media organization would launch a 24-hour news channel in 18 countries in 2013. Smith told the audience at the Abu Dhabi Media summit that the new channel would be “news for young people,” saying that the economic timing is right for the thriving company to seek a greater market share:
“Young people are very angry and disenfranchised all over the world. Meanwhile if you look at what is number one at the ratings in most countries, it is The Voice and X-Factor – derivative, head-in-the-sand shows. Young people are getting more and more disenfranchised by mainstream media and yet we’re making more and more vacuous TV. TV is derivative of itself. But online has also become derivative of TV. We’re trying to challenge ourselves to be better and start something different. Somebody has to be the voice of the angry youth.”
VICE has grown from a magazine into a hugely popular global media company renowned for their documentary content including the recent Snoop Dogg (aka Snoop Lion) doc Reincarnated that premiered at TIFF this fall.
No word yet has come from VICE on which 18 countries the channel would be launching in, but the media organization has strong ties to Canada (Vice Magazine was launched in Montreal in the 90s by Smith and two co-founders) so it seems likely that the channel will be available here.
[via Screen Daily]
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Michael Kolberg is The Sprawl Editor at Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter for jokes @mikeykolberg
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