VICE Media Group announced the launch of its first FAST (Free Ad-Supported TV) channel on the Roku platform. The channel, which premiered on May 11, will feature informative and entertaining premium series and documentaries covering culture, entertainment, food, tech, sports and news.
The FAST channel marks the next growth milestone for VICE Media Group in the rapidly accelerating AVOD sector, increasing the number of touch-points for audiences to consume VICE content. The appetite for VICE content has never been greater, with VICE TV reporting it’s biggest year-over-year growth ever, 1.8b video views on VICE’s record-breaking global YouTube network and the launch and expansion of VMG’s dedicated distribution business.
Kate Ward, President of VICE Studios, said: ‘This is an important move into the high growth and evolving connected TV sector for VICE Media Group. As we continue to meet the increasing audience demand for our content, the channel will feature the best of VICE and unprecedented access to stories that others don’t tell. We’re delighted to be launching with The Roku Channel’.
‘We’ve built an experience that gets viewers to the entertainment they want most quickly and easily’, added Ashley Hovey, Director, AVOD Growth, Roku. ‘Live, compelling content continues to be of utmost importance to our customers and we’re thrilled to partner with VICE Media Group to bring their original programming to the millions of engaged viewers of The Roku Channel’.
Programming on the VICE channel will include TV library content, longer-length digital content adapted for TV and a selection of VICE World News titles. Additionally, VICE Distribution has also sold over 200 hours of VICE content to Roku, which will air on The Roku Channel.
VICE Distribution launched in Summer 2020 and has a catalogue of over 1000 hours of programming created across VICE Media Group. VICE Distribution recently announced partnerships with Pluto TV, Discovery+, SBS Australia, Hulu and All 4. VICE Distribution holds further content partnerships with Bell Media in Canada, AMC International in Iberia and Hulu in Japan.
