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Tag: Vice Media

  • Chanpreet Arora appointed CEO of Vice Media India

    Chanpreet Arora appointed CEO of Vice Media India

    MUMBAI: Vice Media India has a new sheriff in town. Chanpreet Arora has been appointed as the CEO of the company and is working from the Vice office in Delhi. A veteran with 15 years of experience as a consultant and as an entrepreneur, she has charted strategy and operations along with framing macro policy for regulators in India.

    Arora has been shifted to current role from her position as the head of revenue strategy and sales operations at Times Internet. At Times Internet, she set up the revenue strategy and sales operations division in 2016 and was a part of the core team that led the restructuring of the company, according to her LinkedIn profile. 

    Arora joined the Vice operations earlier this month.

    As a business and strategy expert, Arora has helped redefine and restructure some of the most reputed entities in media, sports and digital in India and abroad.

    In India, Vice Media has partnered the Times of India in a bid to accelerate the business in the country. In June 2017, the US-headquartered company received a capital infusion of $450 million.

    Known for its online videos and edgy reporting, Vice operates a popular YouTube channel and produces news programming for Time Warner’s HBO.

    Also Read:

    Vice Media to build largest OTT platform, expand to 80 markets by early ’18

    VICE India hires Pragya Tiwari as content head and OML’s Samira Kanwar as head – video

  • Vice strengthens foothold in APAC, Hosi Simon made CEO

    Vice strengthens foothold in APAC, Hosi Simon made CEO

    MACAU: Vice Media has announced a major expansion of its offerings across the Asia Pacific region, with a plethora of new deals that will allow it to reach hundreds of millions of additional viewers.

    Vice India will launch in early 2018 through a partnership with the Times of India Group, allowing it to produce and distribute local programming for online, mobile and linear platforms. New offices in Mumbai and Delhi will host full-scale Vice operations, including a local offering of virtue worldwide and a full-service content production studio producing scripted, film, news and culture content from India for television, SVOD, OTT and digital platforms.

    With an online video market that is expected to hit $ 46 billion over the next five years, the APAC region is home to 60 percent of the world’s young people, according to the United Nations, demonstrating a significant opportunity for the youth-focused media brand.

    Vice global general manager Hosi Simon will relocate to Singapore, the new headquarters of Vice APAC, to become chief executive officer for the region. Simon announced the new role and the series of partnerships today at the CASBAA Convention 2017 in Macau.

    In addition to opening a full-service content and commercial hub in Singapore, which will offer a studio for local documentary, scripted and film content production, and provide creative services through Virtue Worldwide, Vice announced new offices and partnerships that will allow the youth brand to expand its reach and library of intellectual property.

    Vice is building on its partnership with Docomo Digital in Japan across several territories in Asia. It has also entered into partnerships with leading global and local brands in the region, with more territory launches, partnerships and employee appointments to be announced in the coming weeks.

    “We believe there is a huge opportunity for Vice to build out a deeply relevant, highly local, youth media company across the Asia Pacific region,” said Simon. “With the growing importance of local culture to young people, along with a surging youth population and increased connectivity, some of the most dominant forms of global youth culture across technology, music, fashion, consumer brands, food and identity will come from this part of the world. We hope to play a significant role in creating and giving a voice to these movements, and helping to bring them to the rest of the world.”

    The full slate of announcements to expand in the APAC region include:

    Vice Singapore – Under the direction of new Vice Asia Pacific CEO Hosi Simon, the Vice Singapore regional headquarters will serve as the nucleus for Asia Pacific activity, becoming a content hub offering the full scale of Vice services, including complete production capabilities, locally staffed editorial content, and creative services through Virtue Worldwide. Vice Singapore will be fully operational by January 2018.

    Vice Indonesia – Vice remains in close partnership with JawaPos TV, which will air branded Viceland blocks and Vice news tonight episodes, and digital content in primetime slots beginning this month. Young people aged 18-34 comprise 50 percent of Indonesia’s overall population,opening the door for it to reach the young audience on whatever platform they consume content.

    Expansion of Vice + Docomo Digital partnership: Based on the success of Vice Japan’s partnership with Docomo Digital, Vice and Docomo have significantly expanded their partnership to bring Vice+, Vice’s subscription video on demand (SVOD) service, into Singapore, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and other territories to be announced. This will allow Vice content to reach millions of new young people in a region with a fast growing youth population.

    Virtue worldwide brand partnerships: Virtue worldwide has entered into major brand partnerships that will see the creative agency that was born out of Vice provide creative services throughout the Asia Pacific region.  Launch partnerships in the region include Unilever in Indonesia, National Basketball Association in China, Budweiser in Australia, Nike in Thailand and the Philippines, and a BMW/Alexander Wang collaboration around a new vehicle launch in China.

    Vice has operated in the Asia Pacific region since 2003 and currently has offices in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China and Indonesia. This vast expansion in the region follows the series of deals Vice announced earlier this year, providing major inroads into the nascent mobile content market in the APAC region, and furthers Vice’s ability to bring content directly to young people on whatever screen they are watching. The series of deals will allow Vice to further cultivate the growing young audiences across the APAC region, growing its presence across multiple screens and reaching millions of new viewers across the region.

    Simon assumes the role of CEO, Vice Asia Pacific after serving as global general manager of Vice Media for over a decade, where he oversaw the strategy, growth and operations of Vice digital assets around the world, including Vice’s owned and operated channels, publishing and large-scale brand partnerships, and mobile and OTT platforms, and launched many of the newer offices around the world.

    Vice has developed an outstanding global reputation for producing the gold standard of video content for young people, forging innovative distribution partnerships across mobile, digital and linear platforms with A+E Networks, HBO, YouTube, Snapchat, Sky, 20th Century Fox, Verizon, Canal+, and more to take its programming to young people everywhere.

    These deals significantly increase Vice’s vast international footprint, ushering in new audiences, revenue streams, and content production.  With these deals, Vice’s award-winning multi-platform programming across lifestyle, culture, news, sports, food and more, will be delivered to over 80 territories by Q1 2018.

  • Vice Media to build largest OTT platform, expand to 80 markets by early ’18

    MUMBAI: Capital infusion of $450 million in Vice Media, which is a partner of Times of India, will help accelerate its expansion from 30 to 80 markets by early 2018 for the youth-focused media group. Known for its online videos and edgy reporting, Vice operates a popular YouTube channel and also produces news programming for Time Warner’s HBO.

    Boosting Vice’s reported valuation to around $5.7 billion, and making CEO Shane Smith a billionaire, the Brooklyn, New York-based company has received investment from the equity fund group TPG, saying that the funds would help it “build out its content portfolio and delivery capabilities in the US and internationally.” Vice has earlier received investments from Disney, Comcast’s NBCUniversal, and 21st Century Fox, among others.

    The funds “will allow us to build up the largest millennial video library in the world — enabling Vice to widen our offering to include news, food, music, fashion, art, travel, gaming, lifestyle, scripted and feature films,” Smith said in a statement.

    Smith said Vice would be working on a standalone video platform (OTT) that could deliver video on demand, in the manner of Netflix, and a direct-to-consumer offering, Arab News reported.

    Vice said that it would put TPG’s investment toward building subscription streaming and video services to complement its video on digital channels as well as Viceland cable network. Vice will also use the new investment to help fund its push into scripted programming, Multichannel News added.

  • Tata Comm building global cloud-based media platform for VICE Media

    MUMBAI: Tata Communications is building a global cloud-based media platform for VICE Media to enable the company’s producers and editors around the world to collaborate as if they were together in the same location. This represents a major shift in how VICE Media’s 5,000 employees work together.

    Previously, VICE Media stored its content on premise which made teamwork challenging between different studios.

    Tata Communications, a leading provider of A New World of Communications™, has been chosen by VICE Media to build a high-performance, completely cloud-based platform for global media asset management, storage, content contribution and distribution. It will enable VICE Media to capture content anywhere in the world, and quickly make it available to hundreds of editors in production centres in New York City, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Toronto and London, for publishing and broadcasting across VICE Media channels.

    The new platform is underpinned by Tata Communications’ Media Ecosystem, which offers VICE Media a full set of media solutions. It includes the Video Connect service, which complements VICE Media’s local area network and provides the company with a global area network of video contribution and IP connectivity. With speeds of up to 10Gbps, Video Connect enables a seamless transfer of video files and remote collaboration between VICE Media teams across different geographies as if they were in the same location.

    The Media Ecosystem is also equipped with Tata Communications’ IZO™ Cloud Storage, which provides VICE Media with secure, reliable private cloud-based media storage for read-write access and archival of data-intensive video files. Previously, some of these files were stored on-premise which made teamwork challenging between different studios. All VICE Media’s files, including videos in HD, 4K and UHD formats, are also now replicated in multiple private cloud locations around the world in real-time for back-up and disaster recovery. Additionally, Tata Communications has integrated VICE Media’s media asset management and file acceleration tools into the new bespoke platform, creating an end-to-end solution for around 5,000 VICE Media employees around the world.

    VICE Media’s offering spans across broadcast and OTT channels such as VICE News, VICE Sports, Noisey (music), Motherboard (technology and science), Broadly (women’s interest), i-D (fashion) and Tonic (health and fitness), among many others. Content on these channels consists of news reports, live and recorded events, documentaries and a wide range of other types of videos.

    “We need to be able operate seamlessly across all platforms to reach a global audience with our content,” said VICE Media vice president of IT Ariel Rubio. “To do this, we need a powerful, well connected platform that enables us to collaborate as if we were together in the same location. Working with Tata Communications, we are able to get a LAN experience in a WAN environment, underpinned by the company’s global network.”

    “VICE Media’s needs reflect a growing trend in the media and entertainment market, whereby there is a huge pressure to quench audiences’ thirst for live events, big and small, as they happen around the world, and bring viewers enhanced experiences through higher quality formats such as 4K and UHD,” said Tata VP & GM – global media and entertainment services Brian Morris.

    “In this high-pressure environment that is being transformed by digital technologies, you need an infrastructure that is completely integrated across media asset management, storage, content contribution and distribution. That is what we are creating for VICE Media, with the aim of empowering the company continue on its path of phenomenal growth in this rapidly evolving market.”

    “VICE Media is a new media company using IP-based broadcast infrastructure to achieve greater velocity and overcome geographical boundaries,” said ABI Research VP Sam Rosen. “Tata Communications provides the glue that holds this solution together with IP transport and storage capabilities, bringing content to central locations, between central locations and studios, and feeding the distribution network when assets are ready to publish. The use of IP within broadcast supports the need for rapid support of nascent standards including 4K, 8K, high dynamic range (HDR) and 360 video.”

    Tata Communications’ media and cloud services are underpinned by the world’s largest subsea fibre network of its kind, creating an end-to-end, completely integrated solution for VICE Media. Today, over 25% of the world’s Internet routes travel over Tata Communications’ network and the company is the only Tier-1 IP network provider that is in the top five by routes in five continents.

  • VICE to launch digital service with ToI Group 1Q 2017

    VICE to launch digital service with ToI Group 1Q 2017

    MACAO: VICE Media, the Canadian-American digital media and broadcasting company, will be launching its digital services in India, as part of a slew of other product offerings, in association with Times of India Group in the first quarter of 2017, while actively exploring the option of starting its pay TV service under Viceland brand sometime in the near future.

    “”We are working towards a launch of our digital offerings in Q1 of 2017 in India,” VICE Media Co-President James Schwab told indiantelevision in an exclusive interview.

    Schwab, who also went off to visit India to confabulate with his India partners this week, was in Macao to deliver a keynote at the CASBAA Convention 2016, which also saw a galaxy of other media industry stalwarts, including GroupM global boss Irwin Gotlieb; Bennett Pozil, Head of Corporate Banking & EVP, East West Bank; Chad Gutstein, CEO, Machinima; Avigail Gutman, Programme Director, Operational Security, Cisco; Nickhil Jakatdar, CEO & Founder, Vuclip; Basil Chua, CEO, AsiaMX; Dave Downey, CEO, INVIDI; Zaid Mohseni, COO, MOBY Group, apart from heads of Indian platform operators like Jagdish Kumar of Hathway and Tony D’Silva of the Hinduja Group.

    Schwab, who announced VICE’s launch in Indonesia at the CASBAA Convention, said that India was an exciting market in Asia and that he’s looking at bringing the whole suite of company products in India, of course in association with the Indian partner.

    Originally based in Montreal, Canada, VICE re-located to New York City in 2001. In 2014, VICE Media got injected by US$200 million investment (10 per cent equity) by American broadcasting company A&E Networks, a joint venture of The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Corporation. Disney made a second 10 per cent (US$200 million) investment in 2015. Known for some edgy content, VICE also has Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox as an investor.

    VICE Media, according to Wikipedia, after starting with a magazine expanded primarily into youth and young adult-focused digital media, including online content verticals and related web series. The news division VICE News, a film production studio, and a record label are among other properties. In February 2016, VICE launched a cable television network in Canada and the United States, Viceland, which is a millennial-targeted network that draws upon the resources of the lifestyle-oriented verticals of the company.

    Though India has foreign investment restriction in news ventures of a non-majority stake of 49 per cent, VICE Media feels that it would not hamper their news offerings in association with the Times of India Group. “VICE creates local content in various territories around the world, produced by local hosts, editors, and shooters. VICE looks at each market on an individual basis and makes sure that the content that airs in specific territories is content that young people in those territories care about,” Schwab said.

    The Indian market that is witnessing a slew of new product offerings to consumers on traditional and new technology platforms, including OTT, for VICE offers opportunities that could be monetised and exploited. And, as part of the strategy, the launch of pay TV service Viceland with local and foreign content too is in the pipeline.

    “As we would like to be on all platforms, including digital, at some point of time we would look at launching our pay TV service too in India. But the launch won’t be soon as we still are working on distribution strategies. We’d launch when we feel the product is right (for the Indian market). But we would like even Indian consumers to experience all our products,” Schwab said.

    While speaking at the CASBAA Convention, he admitted that TV was a “powerful tool to reach audience(s) and revenue from subscription TV preserved the “quality of good content.”

    With estimated revenues of US$ 915 million in 2015 and total assets worth about US$ 2.5 billion as on 2014, VICE Media is betting big on Asia-Pacific, including India. Partnership with the TOI Group in the form of two joint ventures is part of that strategy, which will witness creation of new local production studios with leading journalists and filmmakers hired for 24-hour local news and lifestyle programming.

    “We would like to bring all our capabilities to Asia. However, before we enter a market, we think through the local market economics as we would like our businesses to be self- sustaining. Indonesia and India are great examples (of such strategies) as the population of young people is huge as is growth in mobile usage,” Schwab explained.

    VICE also feels that the Indian market is economically viable for the company’s creative agency service despite presence of strong and existing global and domestic players. As VICE’s creative agency, Virtue, works closely with both brands and other media agencies to deliver for clients, Schwab said, “We believe there is interest (in India)…some of our global customers have evinced interest.

  • VICE to launch digital service with ToI Group 1Q 2017

    VICE to launch digital service with ToI Group 1Q 2017

    MACAO: VICE Media, the Canadian-American digital media and broadcasting company, will be launching its digital services in India, as part of a slew of other product offerings, in association with Times of India Group in the first quarter of 2017, while actively exploring the option of starting its pay TV service under Viceland brand sometime in the near future.

    “”We are working towards a launch of our digital offerings in Q1 of 2017 in India,” VICE Media Co-President James Schwab told indiantelevision in an exclusive interview.

    Schwab, who also went off to visit India to confabulate with his India partners this week, was in Macao to deliver a keynote at the CASBAA Convention 2016, which also saw a galaxy of other media industry stalwarts, including GroupM global boss Irwin Gotlieb; Bennett Pozil, Head of Corporate Banking & EVP, East West Bank; Chad Gutstein, CEO, Machinima; Avigail Gutman, Programme Director, Operational Security, Cisco; Nickhil Jakatdar, CEO & Founder, Vuclip; Basil Chua, CEO, AsiaMX; Dave Downey, CEO, INVIDI; Zaid Mohseni, COO, MOBY Group, apart from heads of Indian platform operators like Jagdish Kumar of Hathway and Tony D’Silva of the Hinduja Group.

    Schwab, who announced VICE’s launch in Indonesia at the CASBAA Convention, said that India was an exciting market in Asia and that he’s looking at bringing the whole suite of company products in India, of course in association with the Indian partner.

    Originally based in Montreal, Canada, VICE re-located to New York City in 2001. In 2014, VICE Media got injected by US$200 million investment (10 per cent equity) by American broadcasting company A&E Networks, a joint venture of The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Corporation. Disney made a second 10 per cent (US$200 million) investment in 2015. Known for some edgy content, VICE also has Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox as an investor.

    VICE Media, according to Wikipedia, after starting with a magazine expanded primarily into youth and young adult-focused digital media, including online content verticals and related web series. The news division VICE News, a film production studio, and a record label are among other properties. In February 2016, VICE launched a cable television network in Canada and the United States, Viceland, which is a millennial-targeted network that draws upon the resources of the lifestyle-oriented verticals of the company.

    Though India has foreign investment restriction in news ventures of a non-majority stake of 49 per cent, VICE Media feels that it would not hamper their news offerings in association with the Times of India Group. “VICE creates local content in various territories around the world, produced by local hosts, editors, and shooters. VICE looks at each market on an individual basis and makes sure that the content that airs in specific territories is content that young people in those territories care about,” Schwab said.

    The Indian market that is witnessing a slew of new product offerings to consumers on traditional and new technology platforms, including OTT, for VICE offers opportunities that could be monetised and exploited. And, as part of the strategy, the launch of pay TV service Viceland with local and foreign content too is in the pipeline.

    “As we would like to be on all platforms, including digital, at some point of time we would look at launching our pay TV service too in India. But the launch won’t be soon as we still are working on distribution strategies. We’d launch when we feel the product is right (for the Indian market). But we would like even Indian consumers to experience all our products,” Schwab said.

    While speaking at the CASBAA Convention, he admitted that TV was a “powerful tool to reach audience(s) and revenue from subscription TV preserved the “quality of good content.”

    With estimated revenues of US$ 915 million in 2015 and total assets worth about US$ 2.5 billion as on 2014, VICE Media is betting big on Asia-Pacific, including India. Partnership with the TOI Group in the form of two joint ventures is part of that strategy, which will witness creation of new local production studios with leading journalists and filmmakers hired for 24-hour local news and lifestyle programming.

    “We would like to bring all our capabilities to Asia. However, before we enter a market, we think through the local market economics as we would like our businesses to be self- sustaining. Indonesia and India are great examples (of such strategies) as the population of young people is huge as is growth in mobile usage,” Schwab explained.

    VICE also feels that the Indian market is economically viable for the company’s creative agency service despite presence of strong and existing global and domestic players. As VICE’s creative agency, Virtue, works closely with both brands and other media agencies to deliver for clients, Schwab said, “We believe there is interest (in India)…some of our global customers have evinced interest.

  • Times Network announces Movies Now 2 launch

    Times Network announces Movies Now 2 launch

    MUMBAI: The Times of India has been hogging the media headlines over the past couple of days. Yesterday, courtesy its joint venture with Vice Media. Today, it announced that it is launching its fourth English movie channel christened Movies Now 2. The differentiator: Movies Now 2  will show films and content which will be targeted at the Indian youth. Viewers can expect a clutch of  new age/offbeat edgy indie and mainline movies to air  on the channel.  

    The Times Network has labelled Movies Now 2 as a channel with  a ‘rebellious’ personality, meaning it will be home to Hollywood’s wild content. .

     

    Click here to know more:

    Hollywood’s wildchild Movies Now 2 HD to launch by July end

     

     

  • Times Network announces Movies Now 2 launch

    Times Network announces Movies Now 2 launch

    MUMBAI: The Times of India has been hogging the media headlines over the past couple of days. Yesterday, courtesy its joint venture with Vice Media. Today, it announced that it is launching its fourth English movie channel christened Movies Now 2. The differentiator: Movies Now 2  will show films and content which will be targeted at the Indian youth. Viewers can expect a clutch of  new age/offbeat edgy indie and mainline movies to air  on the channel.  

    The Times Network has labelled Movies Now 2 as a channel with  a ‘rebellious’ personality, meaning it will be home to Hollywood’s wild content. .

     

    Click here to know more:

    Hollywood’s wildchild Movies Now 2 HD to launch by July end

     

     

  • Vice Media partners with Times of India group for multiscreen & Viceland rollout

    Vice Media partners with Times of India group for multiscreen & Viceland rollout

    MUMBAI: So iconic youth brand Vice Media CEO Shane Smith is making good his commitment to enter the Indian market.

    Shane had told Indiantelevision.com in April this year that “India is one of the most important markets for Vice. What we needed was platform, capital, navigation of bureaucracy, waters of media. We went into China and it took us longer than it should have. For India we said if we went in our own, it would take a long time to get to the scale we needed to be. So we took our time looking at a bunch of joint venture partners.”

    Amongst them was Star India, Reliance and The Times of India group. And Smith and his team have finally decided on Vice’s Indian partner: it is the Times of India group, which runs TimesNow, ET Now, MagicBricks Now, Movies Now, Zoom and RomedyNow,

    Additionally, the prowess of the Vijay-Ajay Nair run OML also impressed him and Vice executive vice-president international & corporate development James Rosenstock. OML, has over the past year reportedly – according to sources in investor circles – also come into the Times of India fold with Paul Aiello and Rajesh Kamat of Emerald Media (and formerly CA Media), divesting their holding in favour of arguably India’s largest media firm.

    Vice Media is partnering with the Times of India group to launch and distribute its Viceland channel in India, apart from producing digital and online, mobile, and TV content. Shane made the announcement at the Cannes Lions Festival earlier today.

    The plan is to set up new production facilities – new studios in Mumbai – and to hire scores of journalists, film makers, editors et al to roll out the signature Vice content for the Indian market. Additionally, a core management team is to be put in place to keep a tab on content creation, keeping the local sensibilities in mind.

    What is not clear at the time of writing what OML’s role, if any, is going to be in Viceland and in content creation for Vice’s India foray. .

    But what’s exciting Shane and his company, which has attracted investment to the tune of $700 million from 21st Century Fox and Disney, is the rollout of 4G services in India.

    “The hottest thing is going to be growth of 4G in India, the mobile for young people. It’s not there now, but India has the youngest population. Cheaper smart phones from China and India. So we want to get in build our audience, make our mistakes. So that when traction hits, we are there,” says Shane.

    Details of the joint venture were not available at the time of writing. Shane says that the Indian foray is the company’s largest investment in a country overseas.

    According to media reports, the joint venture will also spawn Vice Media’s in-house creative agency as Virtue India, which will help deliver native and branded content to its swathe of advertising partners. Shane says that the creative agency is an important pivot of his India play. “It will help us offset some of our risk. Existing brands and new brands want us to produce content for them. We discuss brand strategy with them and speak and understand their language,” he explains. “And they love what we do.”

    Shane announced a clutch of other partnerships during the Cannes Lions Festival which would see the debut of Viceland across 51 different territories and countries worldwide.

    For West Asia and North Africa, Vice has signed on The Moby Group as its partner even as it is set to open local production offices in Jordan, Iran, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It has got into bed with Econet Media in sub-Saharan Africa to roll out Viceland into 17 countries including Ghana, Rwanda, Nigeria, Uganda and Sierra Leone by end-2017.

    It has lined up SBS Australia as its cohort for a free to air service for Aussie viewers, while Kiwis in New Zealand will be able to tune into Viceland as part of the basic tier on Sky. Vice Media has charged Singapore-based Multi Channels Asia with rolling out the channel into 18 territories in south east Asia with programming being developed by its in-house creative teams. The company’s home base – as is well known – is Canada and it has inked an agreement with GroupeV Media to launch Viceland in the French speaking part of the country.

    Shane and the Vice team sure know how to do things with a big bang. Now, the challenge for them will be to make the global push work and deliver both to the top line and the bottom line.

  • Vice Media partners with Times of India group for multiscreen & Viceland rollout

    Vice Media partners with Times of India group for multiscreen & Viceland rollout

    MUMBAI: So iconic youth brand Vice Media CEO Shane Smith is making good his commitment to enter the Indian market.

    Shane had told Indiantelevision.com in April this year that “India is one of the most important markets for Vice. What we needed was platform, capital, navigation of bureaucracy, waters of media. We went into China and it took us longer than it should have. For India we said if we went in our own, it would take a long time to get to the scale we needed to be. So we took our time looking at a bunch of joint venture partners.”

    Amongst them was Star India, Reliance and The Times of India group. And Smith and his team have finally decided on Vice’s Indian partner: it is the Times of India group, which runs TimesNow, ET Now, MagicBricks Now, Movies Now, Zoom and RomedyNow,

    Additionally, the prowess of the Vijay-Ajay Nair run OML also impressed him and Vice executive vice-president international & corporate development James Rosenstock. OML, has over the past year reportedly – according to sources in investor circles – also come into the Times of India fold with Paul Aiello and Rajesh Kamat of Emerald Media (and formerly CA Media), divesting their holding in favour of arguably India’s largest media firm.

    Vice Media is partnering with the Times of India group to launch and distribute its Viceland channel in India, apart from producing digital and online, mobile, and TV content. Shane made the announcement at the Cannes Lions Festival earlier today.

    The plan is to set up new production facilities – new studios in Mumbai – and to hire scores of journalists, film makers, editors et al to roll out the signature Vice content for the Indian market. Additionally, a core management team is to be put in place to keep a tab on content creation, keeping the local sensibilities in mind.

    What is not clear at the time of writing what OML’s role, if any, is going to be in Viceland and in content creation for Vice’s India foray. .

    But what’s exciting Shane and his company, which has attracted investment to the tune of $700 million from 21st Century Fox and Disney, is the rollout of 4G services in India.

    “The hottest thing is going to be growth of 4G in India, the mobile for young people. It’s not there now, but India has the youngest population. Cheaper smart phones from China and India. So we want to get in build our audience, make our mistakes. So that when traction hits, we are there,” says Shane.

    Details of the joint venture were not available at the time of writing. Shane says that the Indian foray is the company’s largest investment in a country overseas.

    According to media reports, the joint venture will also spawn Vice Media’s in-house creative agency as Virtue India, which will help deliver native and branded content to its swathe of advertising partners. Shane says that the creative agency is an important pivot of his India play. “It will help us offset some of our risk. Existing brands and new brands want us to produce content for them. We discuss brand strategy with them and speak and understand their language,” he explains. “And they love what we do.”

    Shane announced a clutch of other partnerships during the Cannes Lions Festival which would see the debut of Viceland across 51 different territories and countries worldwide.

    For West Asia and North Africa, Vice has signed on The Moby Group as its partner even as it is set to open local production offices in Jordan, Iran, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It has got into bed with Econet Media in sub-Saharan Africa to roll out Viceland into 17 countries including Ghana, Rwanda, Nigeria, Uganda and Sierra Leone by end-2017.

    It has lined up SBS Australia as its cohort for a free to air service for Aussie viewers, while Kiwis in New Zealand will be able to tune into Viceland as part of the basic tier on Sky. Vice Media has charged Singapore-based Multi Channels Asia with rolling out the channel into 18 territories in south east Asia with programming being developed by its in-house creative teams. The company’s home base – as is well known – is Canada and it has inked an agreement with GroupeV Media to launch Viceland in the French speaking part of the country.

    Shane and the Vice team sure know how to do things with a big bang. Now, the challenge for them will be to make the global push work and deliver both to the top line and the bottom line.