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Vice planning a dozen TV channels in Europe
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 23 October 2015
Vice is planning to launch a dozen TV channels across Europe, according to its boss man Shane Smith.
The Guardian quotes Smith as confirming that he is in talks with various broadcast firms in Europe about collaborating on the launch of a number of channels in the next twelve to eighteen months, adding: “There is a bit of a bidding war going on. In the UK there are potentially a number of partners. There are lots of deals on the table. It’s pretty fast and furious”.
Smith was chatting about his company’s European expansion plans ahead of a talk on that topic due to take place in London this evening. Negotiations with conventional broadcasters have been slow going, he added, partly because they are nervous about being part of a wider media mix.
He continued: “The problem is we want to include mobile, online and OTT [over the top]. But the old-school TV guard pays lip service to doing everything but they don’t like simultaneous windows [with other partners or on other platforms]. We are trying to navigate those waters”.
Once the deals are done – which might involve a Vice strand on an existing channel rather than a completely standalone entity – the programmes are already ready to go apparently, with Smith saying his company had “kind of secretly” been developing a large number of shows to populate its new channels.
