TORONTO – Rogers is teaming up with digital media company Vice Media to produce and distribute youth-focussed Canadian content for mobiles, tablets, computers and TV screens, here at home and around the world.
The announcement, made Thursday morning in Toronto, said that Vice Canada properties will form part of a $100 million joint venture between the two companies that will include a new multimedia production facility in Toronto, Vice Canada Studio; a dedicated Canadian TV channel called the Vice TV Network that will launch next year; and fresh mobile content, including exclusives for Rogers and Fido customers.
Vice launched in Montreal in 1994 as a punk magazine. With 36 offices globally, it has expanded into a multimedia network that includes the original online video site VICE.COM, an international network of digital channels, a television and feature film production studio, a magazine, a record label, and a book-publishing division.
"We wanted to build a powerhouse for Canadian digital content focused on 18 to 34-year-olds," said Rogers and president and CEO Guy Laurence, seated on the left in photo. "Vice was the obvious choice to partner with. They started in Canada but then moved to New York to prove they could build a global media company, which they've done. However, they've never forgotten their Canadian roots and have always wanted to open a Canadian production studio.”
The Vice Canada Studio will partner and collaborate with Canada's best young directors, producers, journalists, editors and filmmakers, giving them the tools and guidance to create Canadian news, drama, documentaries and programming covering food, sports, fashion and tech. It will also serve as an “incubator” to help develop and foster homegrown talent.
Vice Media founder Shane Smith, who has collaborated with Laurence in the past, said that Rogers and Vice are building a content creation hub designed to “generate premium video for a cutting edge media company that will program – simultaneously – the holy trinity of convergence; mobile, online, and TV”.
“We'll build something truly special, deeply innovative and dedicated to the youth of this country”, Smith said. “Rogers and Vice will program the content created out of our studio on its mobile platforms, its online outlets and its television properties. This revolutionary idea puts us not only at the forefront of tech/media space in Canada but we believe our bold experiment will be followed by media and tech companies around the world. Why? Because this is the future of media.”
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