Local Now, Allen Media Group’s free streaming service, said it made a deal with Vice Media Group to add two Vice free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels to Local Now.

The two channels are Vice News, which brings viewers the Vice take on the news, and Vice FAST, programmed to tell stories that spark curiosity and challenge assumptions.

We are excited to add the Vice News and Vice FAST channels to Local Now,” said Byron Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group. “With the addition of these Vice Media Group channels, Local Now viewers now have even more award-winning news, culture, food, sports and entertainment content.”

The two Vice channels will provide Local Now viewers with more than 200 hours of programming.

“We are delighted to partner with Byron Allen and his team at Local Now to bring our exceptional storytelling and youth-focused, award-winning content to their swiftly expanding platform and rapidly growing audiences,” Bea Hegedus, executive managing director of Vice Distribution, said. “Their vision for local news, sports and entertainment strongly aligns with Vice’s mission to inform, define culture and always be at the forefront of cultural change.”

In what seems like an unlikely corporate pairing, Fox-owned Tubi has partnered with Vice Media Group to produce eight investigative documentaries exclusively for the ad-supported streaming service. 

The first doc, The Cult of Elon, which will delve into the "cult of personality" surrounding controversial Tesla and Twitter owner Elon Musk, will debut on Tubi April 26. 

That will be followed up by the May 6 Tubi premiere of Vigilante, which examines the emergence of online vigilantism through the investigation of a Los Angeles-based serial arsonist. 

Vice's brand is generally viewed as muckrakingly left of center, so it's a bit odd to see it surface within the bowls of a Fox profit center. 

Then again, with Vice once again trying to find a buyer, and its valuation dipping below $1 billion, the media company probably isn't being too particular in terms of where it's getting its distribution. 

“These original documentaries will raise the curtain and spark conversation on stories that tap into today’s cultural zeitgeist, including ticket scalping, chatbots and the rise of online vigilantism," said Adam Lewinson, chief content officer for Tubi, in a statement.

Nancy Dubuc, CEO of Vice Media, has stepped down. Dubuc, former president and CEO of A+E Networks, was named Vice Media chief executive in March 2018. Her last day at Vice was February 24. 

Dubuc had spent nearly 20 years at A+E Networks, the last five as president and CEO. She oversaw a portfolio of networks that included A&E Network, Lifetime, History, Lifetime Movies and Viceland, the latter a joint venture with Vice, along with A+E Studios, A+E Networks International and A&E Films.

When Dubuc shifted to Vice, she took over the CEO title from Shane Smith, who became executive chairman. As she came on board, Vice revenue had been decreasing and the company faced charges that female employees were subject to improper behavior in the office. 

Vice had a $5.7 billion valuation years ago, as it was seen to have the riddle of digital media figured out. Backers included Disney and A&E. Its valuation has since fallen dramatically, and it is seeking a buyer. 

Dubuc’s memo did not say what the next chapter of her career holds. She did note the strides Vice has made in terms of diversification and a more inclusive work environment. ■

Two high-profile series are set to debut during a busy week of summer premieres. 

HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon, makes its much-anticipated debut on August 21. The series, which takes place two centuries before Thrones, tells the story of House Targaryen, according to the network.

Debuting August 19 is Disney Plus' latest Marvel Studios-produced series, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. The nine-episode series stars Tatiana Maslany as a lawyer who gains some of the Hulk’s superpowers after her blood mixes with her cousin Bruce Banner, played by Mark Ruffalo.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for multiple shows debuting the week of August 15 to August 21 on cable networks and streaming services (for some videos, viewer discretion is advised):

Aug. 15 – Legacy: The True Story of the L.A. Lakers (documentary) – Hulu

August 16 – Dark Side of Comedy (documentary series) – Vice

August 18 – Glorious (horror) – Shudder

August 18 – The Undeclared War (drama) – Peacock

August 19 – Bad Sisters (dramedy) – Apple TV Plus

August 19 – Echoes (drama) – Netflix

August 19 – Orphan: First Kill (horror movie) – Paramount Plus

August 19 – Sprung (comedy) – Freeve

August 19 – Surfside Girls (drama) – Apple TV Plus

Several new and returning non-fiction shows dominate the lineup of shows debuting during the last full week of June.

Paramount Plus on June 24 debuts a new season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars after VH1 aired the reality competition show for its first five seasons, while Prime Video on June 25 premieres the Mary J Blige’s My Life musical documentary revolving around the R&B singer’s classic “My Life” album.   

On the documentary front, HBO on June 21 will debut a new episode of its true-crime series I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, chronicling events surrounding the infamous Golden State Killer.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting the week of June 21 to June 26 on cable networks and streaming services (for some videos, viewer discretion is advised):

June 22-- David Makes Man (returning series) -- OWN

June 22 -- Motherland: Fort Salem (returning series) -- Freeform

June 23 -- Too Hot To Handle (returning series) -- Netflix

June 24 -- Fear of a Black Quarterback (documentary) -- Vice

June 24 -- The Good Fight (returning series) -- Paramount Plus

June 24 -- Jiva! (drama) -- Netflix

June 25 -- Bosch (returning series) -- Prime Video

June 25 -- Central Park (returning series) -- Apple TV Plus

June 25 -- False Positive (horror) -- Hulu

June 25 -- Sex/Life (drama) -- Netflix

June 25 -- Wolfgang (documentary) -- Disney Plus

June 25 -- the Mysterious Benedict Society (drama) -- Disney Plus

June 27 -- A Discovery of Witches (returning series) -- AMC

Showtime has picked up a second season of documentary series Vice. “Delivering immersive reporting from the frontlines of global conflicts, civil uprisings and beyond, the Vice team of journalists rapidly adapted this past season to cover stories of the COVID-19 pandemic and its rippling effect on local communities around the world, reporting from high-risk epicenters in New York, Italy, Brazil, Iran, Cambodia and more,” said Showtime. 

“In the most challenging conditions imaginable, Vice serves as our collective conscience, delivering vital reporting from around the world, often at great risk to themselves,” said Vinnie Malhotra, executive VP, nonfiction programming, Showtime Networks Inc. “We could not be more proud of the work the team has done, and we’ve marveled at their exceptional investigative and in-depth reporting. We anxiously await what Vice will tackle in the coming season.”

Beverly Chase is the executive producer and showrunner. 

Related: Showtime Shifts ‘The Comey Rule’ to Earlier Premiere

The Vice reporting team includes Isobel Yeung, Gianna Toboni, Alzo Slade, Paola Ramos, Suroosh Alvi, Hind Hassan and David Noriega. 

“We’re hugely thankful to Showtime for their dedication to the pursuit of compelling international journalism in what continues to be an era-defining year for the world,'' said Chase. “Journalism is essential, and our team of award-winning reporters, producers, editors and DPs are thrilled to be back to deliver more impactful storytelling next season.”

Vice is calling on advertisers and media buyers to review the practices that prevent them from buying commercials in news programming.

At its NewFront presentation Wednesday, Vice noted that when advertisers try to make sure they’re in brand safe environments, they often put keywords on “block lists” to keep their ads away from controversial content.

Marsha Cooke, senior VP, Impact, at Vice Media Group, said that its content related to the death of George Floyd while in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department and the protests about brutality against Black Americans was monetized at a rate 57% lower than other news content because brand and agencies block their ads from being adjacent to journalism about those important subjects.

It found that George Floyd, Black Lives Matter, Protest, Minneapolis and even Black people were showing up on lists of blocked words, one from an advertiser that had just put out a statement in support of Black Live Matter.

“That’s not OK,” she said. The practice is “making it difficult for us to support the most important job we have."

Vice is calling on advertisers to review the words on their blocklists and on agencies to reassess the “antiquated” practice of blocking keywords, and substituting more contextual-based solutions to better support journalism while maintaining brand safety.

Last year Vice announced it wouldn’t let words including Muslim, Transgender, Refugee, and Interracial show up on blocklists.

“We got your applause but we didn’t see change. The list just got longer,” Cooke said. “How you spend your ad dollars matters.”

Vice also announced that it was launching Vice World News and would be creating hundreds of hours of international television, digital and audio news programming for audiences worldwide.

The first offerings from Vice World News now available on Vice.com’s English-language sites. More products will be launching over the coming year.

Vice TV is launching a new talk show called Disruptors with Jemele Hill and Cari Champion (working title). The two best friends and former ESPN collegues will discuss subjects from culture, politics, sports and business.

It is launching The 8:46 Project, which it described as a company-wide commitment to expand coverage and reporting on systemic racism across Vice News, Vice Digital, Noisey, Munchies and Vice TV.

Looking ahead, it is also starting up The 2030 Project. The 2030 Project is a 12-month-long program that invites a group of young people from diverse backgrounds into the organization to look 10 years into the future and envision what life might look like at the beginning for the next decade.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting the week of March 23 to March 29 on cable networks and streaming services (for some videos, viewer discretion is advised):

March 23 -- Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears (movie) -- Acorn TV

March 24 -- Dark Side Of the Ring (returning series) -- Vice TV

March 24 -- One Day At A Time (returning series) -- Pop

March 25 -- Crip Camp (documentary) -- Netflix

March 26 -- Behind Her Faith (documentary) -- UMC

March 26 -- Tacoma FD (returning series) -- truTV

March 27 -- Making the Cut (reality competition) -- Prime Video

March 27 -- Ozark (drama) -- Netflix (pictured)

March 27 -- Uncorked (drama) -- Netflix

March 27 -- Vagrant Queen (sci-fi) -- Syfy

March 28 -- Danger Force (family) -- Nickelodeon

March 29 -- Beef House (comedy) -- Adult Swim

March 29 -- Three Busy Debras (comedy) -- Adult Swim

March 29 -- Vice (returning series) -- Showtime 

Troubled Vice Media was dealt another blow by one of its biggest investors, after The Walt Disney Co. took a $353 million writedown of its investment in the company, its second in less than a year, and a further indication of the once high-flying media darling’s continued descent.

The $353 million writedown comes on the heels of a $157 million writedown Disney made of the investment in November. Disney had invested more than $400 million in Vice in 2015, which helped drive the valuation of the company past $4 billion. Disney’s interest also drew in other investors -- in 2017, private equity player TPG invested $450 million into the programmer, pushing its valuation above $5.7 billion. That boost in valuation also helped raise the value of Disney’s investment in the company, hence the $510 million total writedown.

Disney owns about 21% of Vice, and in addition its holdings include half of the investments made by A+E Networks (a 50-50 joint venture with Hearst) and a 6% stake held by 21st Century Fox it acquired when it completed the purchase of certain Fox assets in March.

Related: Vice: Losing Cool 

Since then Vice has undergone a series of growing pains, missing revenue targets and initiating layoffs to rein in costs. In 2018, founder and CEO Shane Smith stepped down in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal, and former A+E Networks (another big investor) CEO Nancy Dubuc stepped in to right the ship. Dubuc has been CEO of Vice for about a year, and at its recent Digital Newfronts, said it would consolidate its digital properties. 

Vice includes a TV network -- Viceland, owned jointly with A+E Networks -- produces a daily news show for HBO (Vice News Tonight), owns advertising company Virtue and its Vice Studios has co-produced documentaries for Netflix (Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened). Earlier this month, the company received about $250 million in debt financing from a group of investors including billionaire George Soros. 

“Vice is firing on all cylinders and on target to meet, if not exceed, its financial targets for the third straight quarter,” a Vice spokeswoman said in a statement. “Our new executive team’s strategic plan is well underway and with the recent capital raise, we will continue investing in the long-term growth of our five global businesses - television, studio, digital, news and our advertising agency, Virtue. As the media industry consolidates and fewer players control the information and entertainment that the world consumes, Vice will always be there with a megaphone for the more than half of the people on this planet under the age of 30 who crave independent world-class content.” 

Developments this week at BuzzFeed, Vice and Spotify underscore the velocity of over-the-top activity and the race to reach young viewers. In the context of Comcast's rationale this month that millennial viewers were tuned to the Olympics via NBC's digital platforms, this week's flurry of OTT programming movement sets the stage for intense competition between new and old media as well as among the corporations that back them.

To be sure, this week's activities were largely structural and conceptual, not surprising for a languid summer week. But collectively, they are a reminder that OTT providers are aggressively going after audiences that cable and other multichannel platforms are losing.

BuzzFeed's plan to reorganize itself into Entertainment and News departments also demonstrates that new media companies are learning lessons from their predecessors. BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti compared the split to Ted Turner's creation of TBS and CNN.

“Back in the day, all the big incumbents would criticize CNN and TBS and make fun of them, saying they were never going to make it and that they weren’t legitimate,” Peretti told Vanity Fair. "Ted Turner didn’t care what anyone thought, and he built a news and entertainment empire side by side.”

In his memo to staff explaining the restructuring, Peretti said the company cannot organize "around a format or technology."  He said that going forward, the BuzzFeed ventures should "take full advantage of many formats and technologies."

"Having a single 'video department' in 2016 makes about as much sense as having a 'mobile department,'" Peretti said. "As digital video becomes ubiquitous, every major initiative at BuzzFeed around the world will find an expression as video, just like everything we do works on mobile and social platforms."

Under the new structure, the newly created BuzzFeed Entertainment group, headed by current BuzzFeed Motion Pictures president Ze Frank, will include video, lists, quizzes and micro-content. BuzzFeed News, under editor-in-chief Ben Smith, will handle global news, health and video news.

NBCUniversal invested $200 million into BuzzFeed last year, a reminder that old media recognizes where its viewers are heading.

At Vice, the signs of change are more speculative, fueled in part by some raucous remarks this week by CEO Shane Smith and a Wall Street Journal report that The Walt Disney Co. may acquire the 82 percent of Vice that it doesn’t already own. Disney pumped $200 million into Vice last December.

Prior to delivering the prestigious MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday (Aug. 24), Smith told reporters that it makes sense to sell Vice while it is at “the peak of media valuations.” But he added that Disney has not yet made an offer. The WSJ report put Vice's current valuation at nearly $4.5 billion. Smith suggested that Vice could be worth $50 billion in three or four years.

“If you look at the brands like Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars that have [sold] to Disney, they have all gotten bigger,” Shane was quoted as saying in the WSJ.

On a more mundane level, Spotify -- known for its music dominance -- last week fulfilled its May promise to move into the video realm with original programming. Its first documentary series, Metallica: The Early Years, debuted last weekend. Chapter One (about 8 minutes long) includes exclusive interviews with the band plus archival footage. It was available on YouTube; the next three Metallica segments are available only on the mobile version of Spotify’s app.

Spotify's Landmark series of video music stories will continue with a series on the Beach Boys’s iconic Pet Sounds album.

It’s official: A+E Networks will team with online global company Vice Media to create a new 24-hour channel with a working title of Viceland.

Viceland will take over A+E Networks outlet H2 in early 2016 and re-launch to approximately 70 million homes, said A+E officials. The network is currently in 74 million homes, per Nielsen.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Published reports have said the Walt Disney Co. – which owns A+E Networks along with Hearst Corp. – will also invest in the channel. A&E last year invested $250 million for a 10% share in Vice Media.

The network, which had been rumored about since early spring, provides A+E Networks with a millennial-targeted channel to complement its older-skewing services Lifetime, History and A&E. 

“Vice has a bold voice and a distinctive model in the marketplace," Nancy Dubuc, president and CEO of A+E Networks, said in a release. “This channel represents a strategic fit and a new direction for the future of our portfolio of media assets.”

For Vice, the deal provides the online company with a linear cable service, providing the company with another platform to distributed its original content, according to Shane Smith, Vice co-founder and CEO.

“This network is the next step in the evolution of our brand and the first step in our global roll-out of networks around the world,” Smith said. “First: It allows us to be truly platform agnostic and enable our audience to view our content wherever they want. Second: It represents a continued growth in our content quality and raises the ceiling even higher for our brilliant teams to attack stories from long form features to multi-episode series and even short form interstitials that will challenge the accepted norms of current TV viewing. Third: We will test new and innovative monetization strategies placing Viceland at the pointy tip of the spear of the rapidly changing terrain of TV advertising."

A+E Networks will oversee technical operations and distribution and will work with Vice on ad sales and sponsorships. Vice will also handle all marketing across all platforms, utilizing its various relationships with partners across mobile and digital. 

Director and Vice partner Spike Jonze will oversee production of the channel, which will feature hundreds of hours of original programming produced by Vice. New primetime shows slates for Viceland include Gaycation (with Ellen Page and Ian Daniel), Huang’s World (with Eddie Huang), Noisey (with Zach Goldbaum), Vice World Of Sports (with Sal Masekela), Black Market (with Michael K. Williams), Flophouse, Party Legends and Weediquette (with Krishna Andavolu). Jonze, Smith and other Vice officials had previewed the lineup for reporters and advertisers in May at a Newfronts event, before Vice was ready to confirm publicly the plans for the network. At the time, Vice merely said, optimistically, the shows were "coming this fall." 

Even before it launches its HBO nightly newscast and a documentary service on the former A&E H2 channel, Vice is laying out plans for expanding its TV and online video presence globally, and anticipates a public offering or sale in the coming year, founder/CEO Shane Smith said.

During a CNBC interview in London, Smith disclosed that Vice plans to launch at least a dozen TV networks throughout Europe during the coming year, continuing to concentrate on edgy programs for millennial audiences. He acknowledged that he move into TV is essential since 75% of the company's ad revenue comes from TV. Smith said he expects to use that money for expanded ventures into mobile and over-the-top delivery.

"You can actually take money from TV and put it into mobile, which is quite frankly more difficult to monetize," Smith said.

He offered no specific details about the upcoming U.S. launches, but said he expects revenue will near $1 billion this year and will double during the next few years. 

Vice is in acquisition talks "with everybody," at a $5 billion valuation, but that is "kind of at the top end where media could buy us today," Smith said. Hence he also is pondering a public offering.

"Around the end of this year, we're going to have to make a decision about whether we start to make the book to go public, or do a sort of larger, major strategic deal," Smith told CNBC.

During the London trip last week, Smith also revealed that Vice has produced 32 TV series  since early 2014 "for our network in America" and added that the content has been offered for pan-European regional and national deals.

"We are trying to navigate the morass of how you do telco deals simultaneous with terrestrial TV deals and keep growing our online platforms," Smith said, according to published reports. He has said he expects to announce distribution partners within the next couple months and begin TV rollout during the first quarter of 2016.

Separately, Vice has hired former Bloomberg chief content officer Josh Tyrangiel to run the company's new daily newscast for HBO; the launch date for the new five-nights-per week show has not been set. Tyrangiel had been at Bloomberg for six years.

Smith described Vice's HBO show as a venture that will "take news programming in a totally new direction. ... [It] needs the leadership of an expert who’s hungry to do things differently."  

Meanwhile, Netflix, which has accelerated its original content production, said it will add the edgy kind of documentaries that have been Vice's forte. During Netflix's recent earnings call, content chief Ted Sarandos said the streaming service could compete with Vice documentaries and with news-based shows such as HBO's Last Week Tonight With John Oliver.

"We're definitely being more adventurous in terms of the genres we're going into," Sarandos said during a presentation, during which Netflix CEO Reed Hastings asked, "What's the likelihood that we compete directly with Vice in the next two years?"

Sarandos simply said, "Probably high." 

HBO is entering the daily news business via an expanded relationship with Vice Media.

Under a four-year pact that HBO calls its “most expansive programming deal ever,” the premium service will present five, 30-minute, Vice-branded newscasts 48 weeks per year.

The news content also will be available via a channel on HBO Now, the OTT service that will bow within the Apple device ecosystem with the fifth season premiere of megahit Game of Thrones on April 12.

Also part of the agreement, financial terms of which were not disclosed, HBO has extended its weekly commitment to Vice docuseries for four more years and will increase the number of shows from 14 to 35 annually.

 Moreover, HBO will present 32 Vice-branded specials over the next four years.

“This deal, simply put, allows Vice the freedom to go after any story, anywhere we find it – and to do so with complete independence,” said Vice Media founder and CEO Shane Smith. “This deal is a tremendous gift and a tremendous opportunity, and we at Vice realize this.”

HBO has renewed Vice, the news magazine series created by the media publication of the same name, for two more seasons.

The series, which is hosted by Vice Media's Shane Smith and consists of documentary-style investigations of various global issues, currently has three episodes left to air in its 12-episode second season. The series will return in 2015 with a 14-episode run, followed by a fourth season in 2016. According to HBO, Vice had a gross audience of 2.9 million viewers. 

"The success of Vice on HBO proves that people are hungry to be engaged in world events when the storytelling is not packaged into sound bites. Vice's smart, honest, ind-depth approach to news coverage is a perfect complement to HBO's programming," said Michael Lombardo, president, HBO Programming, in a release. 

HBO currently airs new episodes of 'Vice' on Fridays at 11:00 E.T./P.T following Real Time with Bill Maher. Maher also serves as executive producer of Vice, alongside Shane Smith, Eddy Moretti and BJ Levin. Fareed Zakaria also serves as consulting producer.