The Vice Channel

HBO expands news commitment

Quick update on a topic I’ve written about several times recently, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

HBO is adding a daily half-hour VICE newscast and a separate VICE channel on its upcoming direct-to-consumer streaming video service.

Both are aimed directly at younger audiences who don’t use cable. HBO is launching the service as a $14.99/month stream.

Plus, VICE’s current weekly TV series on regular-subscription HBO will be expanded to 35 episodes a year from 14, and VICE will produce 32 “specials” — like their “Killing Cancer” special — for the network through 2018.

Clearly, HBO sees a lot of value in VICE’s news programming, and while this won’t solve the fundamental problems within journalism, it’s encouraging.

And, it leads to wondering what your company is doing to reach a new generation, skeptical about traditional media “news” packaging, but — hopefully — still interested in our world.