Streaming services Amazon Prime and Netflix will both roll out high-profile scripted series  heading into the Labor Day weekend.

Amazon Prime on Aug. 30 will debut Carnival Row, an eight-episode fantasy-themed drama series that depicts the tenuous relationship between humans and immigrant mythological creatures living among each other in the same city, according to the streaming service.

Also in the fantasy realm premiering Aug. 30 is Netflix’s The Dark Crystal:Age of Resistance (pictured), a 10-episode prequel series to the 1982 Jim Henson film The Dark Crystal.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting this week on cable networks and streaming services:

Aug. 26 -- Dave Chappelle: Stick & Stones (comedy special) -- Netflix

Aug. 27 -- The Devil You Know (documentary) -- Viceland

Aug. 28 -- The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2 (returning series) -- MTV 

Aug. 29 -- Growing Up Hip-Hop: New York (returning series) -- WE

Aug. 30 -- When Hope Calls (drama) -- Hallmark Movies Now

Aug. 30 -- Keeping Faith (returning series) -- Acorn Tv 

Aug. 30 -- Styling Hollywood (reality series) -- Netflix 

Sept. 2 -- Untouchable (documentary) -- Hulu 

USA Network’s premiere of Suits spinoff drama series Pearson and Netflix's reality series Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee lead the list of new and returning shows debuting this week.

Pearson, which premieres July 17, stars Gina Torres as lawyer Jessica Pearson, who moves to Chicago to work for that city’s mayor after being disbarred in New York, according to USA Network.

The series’s debut follows the premiere of the ninth and final season of Suits.

Also premiering this week is the new season of Netflix’s reality series Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, starring Jerry Seinfeld and featuring appearances by Eddie Murphy, Seth Rogen, Ricky Gervais and Jamie Foxx.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting this week on cable networks and streaming services:

July 15 -- Girl Cruise (reality series) -- VH1

July 16 -- Behind Closed Doors (documentary) -- HBO

July 16 -- Human Discoveries (animation/comedy) -- Facebook Watch

July 16 -- Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein (comedy series) -- Netflix

July 19 -- All of Nothing: Carolina Panthers (reality sports) -- Prime Video

July 19 -- Killjoys (returning series) -- Syfy

July 19 -- Queer Eye (returning series) -- Netflix

July 21 -- Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted (reality series) -- Nat Geo

National Geographic’s new drama series The Hot Zone will look to heat up TV screens during its Memorial Day premiere as one of several new series premieres and show returns debuting during the holiday week.

The Hot Zone stars Julianna Margulies and chronicles the first known case of the deadly Ebola virus appearing on U.S. soil in 1989, according to the network.

On the returning series front, Starz’s dramedy series Vida returns for a second season on May 23, while Netflix’s Spike Lee-produced series She’s Gotta Have It also returns for a second season on May 24, according to the network.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting this week on cable networks and streaming services:

May 22 -- The Wrestlers (reality series) -- Viceland

May 23 -- The Name Of the Rose (Drama) -- SundanceTv

May 24 -- What/If (drama) -- Netflix

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.” 

Viceland in April will step into the pro wrestling ring with a new new docu-series, Dark Side Of The Ring.

The six-episode series, which debuts April 10,  will examine the collision of fantasy and reality in the singular universe of professional wrestling with stories around some of the sport's all-time greats, according to Viceland.

Wrestlers profiled in the series include Randy "Macho Man" Savage, Bret Hart, Bruiser Brody, Von Erich and The Fabulous Moolah, said network officials. 

Dark Side of the Ring is produced y Vice Canada, with Evan Husney, Ed Hatton and Chris Grosso serving as producers, and Jason Eisener service as director, said Vice.  

The Writers Guild of America, East has ratified four contracts with Vice Media, covering the staffer at at VICE Editorial, VICE News, VICELAND and Vice Digital, which means writers for TV news, documentaries, nonfiction series and digital news.

The contracts include both renewals of 2016 agreements and new first-time agreements.

Related: Optomen, WGAE Strike New Pact

According to WGAE, the contracts include "companywide policies and practices, including codifying anti-harassment and anti-bias policies and trainings, stipulating gender pronoun use in the workplace, providing gold standard benefits for transgender and people that identify as gender non-conforming, enacting explicit protections against online harassment and a commitment to interviewing diverse candidates for open positions. The contracts also include robust non-discrimination language pertaining to race, gender identify, socio-economic status, criminal convictions and more."

They also include salary increases in each year those contracts, a committee to talk about freelance contributors, union security and union representatives present for potential harassment complaints.

“We are very pleased by the concrete gains negotiated for people who craft content on the entire range of platforms, and we look forward to a productive relationship with VICE management for years to come," said Lowell Peterson, executive director of WGAE.

Vice Media is again taking it on the chin, after a report in the Wall Street Journal further chronicled its financial troubles, exacerbated by a write down by one of its biggest investors that appears to show it has lost nearly $1 billion in value over the past year.

The Journal said Vice, the home of about a dozen websites like Munchies, Free, Garage, Motherboard and Tonic as well as cable channel Viceland and HBO documentary news shows Vice Weekly and Vice News Tonight, will shed 10% to 15% of its workforce through attrition, adding that the media company has again fallen short of revenue targets. 

According to the Journal, citing people familiar with the privately held company, Vice revenue will be flat at between $600 million and $650 million in 2018, about $100 million short of forecasts. This is the second year in a row that the media company has fallen short of expectations and it is expected to lose about $50 million this year after losing $100 million in 2017.

Adding to the pressure is the revelation by the Walt Disney Co., that it took a $157 million write down of its investment in Vice in fiscal 2018, a move that suggests the company has lost about $800 million in its valuation in the past year.

Disney sunk about $400 million into Vice in 2015, sending its valuation to about $4 billion at the time, but it isn't the media company's biggest investor. That honor belongs to private equity firm TPG, whose $450 million investment in Vice last year pushed its total value to $5.7 billion. While Disney is still ahead of the game -- an $800 million drop in valuation still means Vice is valued at $4.9 billion -- it appears that Vice, once touted for its mastery in attracting the hip, millennial audience that every content producer and advertiser craves, may be loosening its grip.

Vice made moves earlier this year to right the ship and jettison the boys club culture that had led to a handful of sexual harassment allegations, hiring former A+E Networks chief Nancy Dubuc to head up the company while pushing founder and head bad boy Shane Smith to the role of executive chairman. A+E Networks is an investor in Vice too, it sunk $250 million into the company in 2014 and it was A+E's H2 channel that was transformed into Viceland, with great expectations, a year later.

Now Dubuc, about six months into the job -- she officially started on May 29 -- is making some big changes. In addition to the workforce reduction, which includes a hiring freeze initiated less than two months ago which has left about 220 of its 3,000 employee positions open, Vice plans, according to the Journal, to pare down its nearly one dozen digital sites by half.

Dubuc has pledged to make Vice profitable, but that too is a matter of interpretation. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter she said it would be soon, and "a lot sooner than most people think." At the New York TimesDealbook conference on Nov. 1, she told interlocutor Andrew Ross Sorkin, that Vice would be profitable "within a fiscal year."

Make no mistake that much of Vice's woes stem from its entrance into the cable realm. Vice has said it was profitable before it launched Viceland. And Dubuc, at the Dealbook conference, blamed placement problems -- Comcast for one, puts Viceland on one of its priciest tiers, not a great position to attract younger cost-conscious viewers -- and carriage difficulties for much of its woes.

Debuc also addressed valuation declines at the Dealbook conference, calling them irrelevant.

"Valuation only matters if your for sale and we’re not for sale right now," Dubuc said at the conference.

What she should have said was Vice isn't for sale yet. Because in her conversation with THR, she admitted that a sale of the company would be the most likely future outcome, although she would "like to see a good couple of years of continued growth under our belts first."

That puts Vice in a bit of a quandary. It probably would do better having some extra time to right the ship, but there is also the risk that the longer it takes, the harder it will be to find a buyer willing to pay what Vice thinks it’s worth.

The bottom line is that cable is hard. And it is especially hard if your target audience is incredibly fickle, like young people. Sure, they're the demo that every advertiser desires, but the rec room is littered with programmers that may have had the pulse of the next generation one year, only to find their arteries hardening the next. MTV, Nickelodeon, MySpace and others all had their moments in the 12-24 demographic sun, but this year's teenager is next year's young adult, with different interests, time constraints and viewing habits. And the generation behind them wants nothing to do with their definition of cool.

Dubuc isn’t unaware of that. At the Dealbook conference, she said that Vice is “in the service of youth permanently. That will continue to change because every generation is going to demand its own characteristics, its own flavor.”

Vice is not alone in its difficulties. Other digital powerhouses have announced layoffs as traffic has slowed. According to the Journal,  Vox Media and Refinery29 have missed revenue targets, with Refinery29 announcing in October that it will lay off 10% of its workforce. And Vox said earlier this month that it would fold popular tech site Recode into the parent and relaunch it as a section of Vox.com next year. No workforce reductions are planned, but the moves come as traffic has declined and some high-profile journalists have left for other ventures.

Dubuc is a talented, seasoned TV executive, and hopefully she can pilot a turnaround at the media company. And if the problem is increasing carriage alone, she is definitely the person you would want at the helm to do that. But convincing distributors to add on cable networks -- even ones targeted at younger viewers -- is harder than it used to be because there is a lot of evidence that younger viewers are shying away from linear TV in increasing numbers.

And the bigger problem Dubuc is facing is one that confronts every TV and media executive: how to get an audience brought up on free information to pay for it, or at least watch advertising in some form that foots the bill. With more media and entertainment alternatives cropping up almost every day, each with a thirst for scale, it’s a question that needs answering sooner rather than later. 

Digital video company BuzzFeed has named former MTV executive Laruen Dolgen as its new head of BuzzFeed Studios.

Dolgen will oversee oversee development of original productions for BuzzFeed partners across TV, SVOD, and film, as well as the company’s growing slate of original digital series. She will also be responsible for creating and developing series concepts drawing from IP and talent from across BuzzFeed, including BuzzFeed News and its lifestyle portfolio under BuzzFeed Media Brands, according to the company.

Most recently, Dolgen served as Head of West Coast Development for Viceland, overseeing West Coast-based production and development for the joint venture between Vice Media and A+E Networks. Prior to that, Dolgen served as Executive Vice President, Series Development and Head of Unscripted Programming at MTV.

Dolgen will be based in Los Angeles and report to Jonah Peretti, Founder and CEO of BuzzFeed.

“Lauren’s fun, irreverent sensibility, her great eye for talent, and her obsession with pop culture make her the perfect fit for BuzzFeed,” said Peretti in a statement. “Her track record and relationships are incredibly strong, and I’m excited to work with her to capture the opportunity with our Studio business and expand what we can do creatively across all platforms.”

When Vice Media founder Shane Smith launched pay TV channel Viceland in 2016, he told the world that he was going to teach stodgy, old content companies how to succeed in the new media space.

“Twelve months from now, we’ll be on the cover of Time magazine as the guys who brought millennials back to TV,” Smith told The Hollywood Reporter in February 2016, just days before it launched Viceland.

A year later, it looks like the brash media mogul is the one getting schooled. For starters, despite all of Smith’s chest-thumping, Viceland is struggling with low ratings — lower than documentaries on H2, the channel it replaced — after missing revenue targets by a wide margin last year.

The company is scrambling to deal with a string of sexual harassment allegations, which arose amid a testosterone-fueled culture, that rocked its executive suite after a blistering expose in The New York Times a few months ago. And hanging over the company since 2016 are reports that even the digital growth isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, as more than half of Vice.com’s web traffic was from partner sites, a common-but-frowned-upon practice.

And there has been no shortage of drama in the C-suite: Vice Media suspended former co-president Andrew Creighton and fired chief digital officer Mike Germano, both named in the Times article, after the story broke. Smith, a swaggering CEO who peppers his conversations with F-bombs and bravado, will step down from that role to focus on strategy as executive chair.

Vice Media contends it is a company in transition, and observers point to a two-year-old quote from Smith where he said he would eventually hire a CEO so he could focus on deals and strategy. To them, he’s is making good on a promise. But there is no question Vice executives are finding the TV business a lot harder than they initially thought.

And some believe major investors, including A+E Networks, The Walt Disney Co. and private-equity firm TPG, are now concerned that the heady $5.7 billion valuation — nearly twice the market capitalization of AMC Networks, home of The Walking Dead — is suddenly starting to feel tentative and inflated, and want to avoid a freefall.

Thus, an old-school cable veteran, and a woman, has been named to lead the charge. A+E Networks CEO Nancy Dubuc, whose employment deal with the programmer was scheduled to expire at the end of the year, agreed March 13 to become Vice Media CEO.

Veteran Presence Steps In
Dubuc was a candidate for the top spot at Amazon Studios, a position that was formerly held by Roy Price, who was fired after several sexual harassment allegations came to light. That job went to NBC Entertainment president Jennifer Salke last month.

Despite its edgy programming (F*ck, That’s Delicious!) and anti-authoritarian bent, Vice is really chasing a universal goal in the TV business — reach a broader audience with fresh programming at a time when traditional TV ratings are down across the board and cable operators are losing subscribers.

Related: Cord-Cutters Not Returning to Pay TV, TiVo Study Finds

Dubuc’s appointment, at first glance, appears to solve many of Vice’s immediate ills. As a board member, she is well-versed in the inner workings of the company. As an executive who has championed diversity in the workplace and in society over the years, she gives the company immediate credibility and will have a zero-tolerance attitude toward harassment.

Dubuc is also a seasoned TV executive schooled in navigating the fickle environment of media and has a proven track record. She joined A+E Networks in 1999 as director of historical programming for The History Channel and steadily moved up the ranks, becoming A+E’s CEO in 2013.

On her watch, A+E has added scripted and reality programming hits, expanded its digital content reach and created A+E Ventures to invest in early-stage technology and content companies.

It was Dubuc who spearheaded A+E’s $250 million investment in Vice Media, leading to the creation of Viceland, formerly History International (H2). Dubuc brings a proven TV business acumen to her new role, but also sends a signal that the old days are over.

“I believe they have people who have been involved running networks,” Pivotal Research Group senior research analyst–advertising Brian Wieser said. “I think the problem was they needed a change at the top.”

Smith started Vice as a punk-rock fanzine in Montreal in the 1990s, growing it into a print, digital and video content behemoth with about 3,000 employees just two decades later. Vice Media also has a popular daily news show on HBO, Vice News.

From ’Zine to Empire
Besides the publishing business — it still cranks out magazines, as well as popular online news and culture websites — Vice Media has spread its tentacles into music with in-house record label Vice Music; digital and mobile advertising through Virtue Worldwide; and television and feature film production via Vice Films.

An aging rocker who two years ago bragged about dropping $300,000 while with friends at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Smith has toned down his shtick considerably since his early days. He got married to a former Vice employee in 2009, had kids, bought a 14,000-square-foot, 12-bedroom mansion in Santa Monica, Calif., and apologized publicly for the company’s past “boys club” atmosphere.

But with women’s rights in the workplace finally gaining traction in the media business in the wake of the collapse of The Weinstein Co. and the downfall of media mogul Harvey Weinstein and others, the time was ripe for a regime change.

Still, in a statement announcing Dubuc’s appointment, the ever-brash Smith didn’t disappoint fans of his irreverent style. “We are a modern day Bonnie and Clyde, and we are going to take all your money,” he said of Dubuc and himself.

Then he quickly shifted to mimic the stodgy media executives he so gleefully ridiculed in the early days of Vice’s ascendance as the arbiter of millennial taste in news and entertainment. “As we go forward, Vice needs a best-in-class management team to harness all of this growth and control our destiny, whether it be staying independent, strategically partnering with someone or going public,” Smith said.

It’s possible more old-school media types are destined for the Vice payroll, and perhaps the company is tidying up for a sale or an initial public offering. But while IPOs and selling the company were both considered to be strong options just a few years ago — Disney was long speculated to be a buyer and talk of a public offering is always a hot topic — that has cooled considerably.

Disney appears to have its hands full at the moment with its pending $66.1 billion purchase of 21st Century Fox assets. And Viceland’s struggles have caused some to believe an IPO is on hold for at least this year.

“I can’t imagine how they possibly could anytime soon,” Wieser said of a sale or an IPO, adding that the cultural issues are likely the top priority.

That’s a big departure from less than a year ago, when private-equity player TPG Capital made a $450 million investment for an 8% stake in Vice, pushing its valuation to $5.7 billion.

At that current level, Vice Media is worth nearly twice as much AMC Networks (with a market cap of $3.1 billion), home of the most-watched show on ad-supported pay TV, The Walking Dead. And its market cap is more than three times higher than the next millennial-focused digital darling, BuzzFeed, valued at about $1.7 billion.

But in a short time, Vice has slipped from new media standard-bearer to a company struggling to hold its place in the ever-shifting content sands. Vice missed its 2017 revenue target by $100 million, due mostly to Viceland, and is being pressured by its investors to turn a profit in 2018, according to a February report in The Wall Street Journal.

People familiar with the channel have countered that it is extremely rare for a two-year-old network to turn a profit, adding that while Viceland fell short of revenue targets, the shortfall was a fraction of the Journal’s $100 million estimate. They said overall revenue at Vice Media was up by double-digit percentages in 2017 and that comparing Viceland, which is available in about 70 million homes, to fully distributed networks is unfair. A better comparison is with networks such as ESPNU, SundanceTV or Cooking Channel, all of which had lower ratings than Viceland, they added.

Still, according to industry researcher Kagan, a unit of S&P Global, Viceland gets about 6 cents per subscriber per month in affiliate fees, about the same as it did when it was A+E’s H2 channel. But even with a younger audience, the channel has fallen short in terms of advertising.

Kagan estimated that net advertising revenue at the channel plunged from $60.9 million at the end of 2015, when it was still H2, to $32.4 million at the end of 2016. That figure was more than halved to $14.3 million in 2017 as low ratings decimated sales; it should rise slightly to $18.1 million in 2018.

Kagan analyst Derek Baine estimates Viceland posted negative cash flow of $16 million for 2017 and will post a similar number for 2018. By comparison, H2 generated $9 million in positive cash flow in 2016 for A+E Networks.

“Viceland is not doing very well,” Baine said.

Viceland counters that although it delivers only 60% of the primetime impressions that H2 did in its target demo of adults 18 to 49 (2017 vs. 2015), it has improved its appeal with attractive advertising targets. Viceland’s audience has higher income, more education and is younger and more multicultural than H2 viewers were.

For ad buyers, Viceland has been a mixed bag.

“Generally speaking, they’ve skewed more male and younger than general TV, so it’s a success in that regard,” Horizon Media co-chief investment officer David Campanelli said. “But while the skew is generally on target, the ratings are lower than most have hoped.”

With Viceland’s ad load, clients are encouraged to use more branded content to reach consumers, similar to how Vice uses branded content online. “We have done some good branded content with them,” Campanelli said. “They have great production capabilities in-house, so it is very turnkey.”

The average age of a Viceland viewer is around 40 years old — compared with 57 for H2 — but that skews even younger for premiere airings of original shows and for different platforms. In some cases, the average age falls to the mid 30s or high 20s.

Viceland has been growing and adding sponsors, A+E Networks executive vice president for advertising Peter Olsen said. “I think the acceptance of the network is growing,” he said. “Our advertising is up, with 180 clients on board now, which is good.”

Viceland is one of the cable networks with the fewest ads, Olsen noted, at just eight minutes per hour — about half the amount of other channels. That low commercial load keeps viewers engaged.

“It’s the best network of all for retention through breaks, engagement through breaks,” he said, citing network research. “That’s pretty encouraging.”

Playing a Long Game
“For a network in 70 million homes, they’re doing decent ratings numbers, the revenue stream is predictable, and they’ve increased the client base,” said one person familiar with the company who asked not to be named. “It’s a long game and they’re still only two years in.”

According to media reports, Viceland drew an average primetime rating of 0.1 from Sept. 25 through Feb. 4, or about 106,000 viewers. That’s up about 10.4% from last year and in line with such networks as Smithsonian Channel, Azteca America and GAC.

It’s not uncommon for new networks to take some time to find their footing. Ratings for OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network were dismal early on compared with Discovery Health, which it replaced in 2011.

Wieser said he can’t think of any network that became a hit from the start. And in today’s climate, with distributors and programmers looking to reduce the number of channels they offer, it’s even more unlikely.

Viceland’s attraction is its mixture of shows with edgier titles like F*ck That’s Delicious (chronicling the gastronomic adventures of rapper Action Bronson) and Slutever (where sex writer Karley Sciortino explores female sexuality), to sponsored shows like Beerland (bankrolled by Anheuser-Busch InBev and featuring Meg Gill, founder of its craft beer brand Golden Road Brewing, as she travels the country meeting home brewers) to shows in off-network syndication like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Vice also has managed to attract a few Emmy nominations for Gaycation, a documentary highlighting LGBTQ cultures around the world, hosted by actor Ellen Page and producer Ian Daniel, and for the Gloria Steinem-hosted Woman.

But to attract ratings, the network may have to fall back on a tried and true TV tenet: More money equals more quality content.

Viceland is spending about the same on programming as its H2 predecessor did, according to Kagan — $72.4 million on original and acquired programming in 2016, versus $69.4 million for H2 in 2015. Kagan also estimated that programming spend will grow to $83 million by the end of 2018.

Wieser said Viceland’s success or failure may finally rely on how much of a commitment Vice Media is willing to make to programming. And that will depend on how much it is able to fund the business.

Vice has already raised more than $1 billion from investors like Disney, A+E Networks, TPG Capital and 21st Century Fox. Now that it is unlikely to be raising more capital in the near term, it is forced to show investors it can fund the business on its own.

Dubuc has had experience turning networks around. When she took the helm of History in 2007, she took what was then a documentary-heavy network and spiced it up with reality programming such as Ice Road Truckers, Ax Men, Swamp People and Pawn Stars, vaulting it from No. 11 among viewers aged 25-54 to No. 4. At A&E, Dubuc launched Duck Dynasty, which outpaced Fox’s American Idol in its heyday, and brought scripted hits like Bates Motel to the lineup. Viceland and its investors are hoping she can keep that streak intact.

“If you’re Vice and you invested $100 million in programming, you would get some viewership but not a lot,” Wieser said. “If you spend $1 billion to support Viceland, you’d have a business. It might lose money, but it would be a business.”

A+E Networks president and CEO Nancy Dubuc is leaving the company effective April 16, A+E confirmed Monday (March 12).

Former A+E Networks CEO Abbe Raven, who retired from the company in 2015, will replace Dubuc until a new replacement is named, said company officials.

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

“In her roughly 20 years at A+E Networks, Nancy played a major role in building the success of A&E, HISTORY and Lifetime, and we thank her for her leadership,” said Steven R. Swartz, president and CEO of Hearst, and Ben Sherwood, co-chair, Disney Media Networks and president, Disney|ABC Television, in a joint statement.“We are also very grateful to Abbe, a former CEO of the company and one of A+E’s first employees, for agreeing to return on a temporary basis as acting chair.”

Dubuc, who was reported to be in the running for the Amazon Studios top job prior to Amazon naming NBC Entertainment president Jennifer Salke to the post, said in a statement that she is leaving to look for her “next dare and challenge,” and added she’s proud of what she and A&E have accomplished together.

“Together, we have had the privilege to build some of the most iconic brands in media,” she said. “Every step of my career, I have had the opportunity to learn and grow from some of the most inspiring and innovative minds at A+E and in both the creative and business community.” 

Raven, who worked with A+E Networks for 33 years, added in a statement: “Nancy and I have worked together for almost 20 years and I have seen the tremendous accomplishments and innovation she has brought to A+E – from its creative content to attracting award-winning talent and the digital and studio businesses she has nurtured. A+E is a special place with extraordinary and talented people.  I look forward to helping the board and leading the talented A+E teams during this transition.”

Dubuc's full statement follows:

“For nearly 20 years, I have called A+E Networks home and the team has been an extended part of my family. Together, we have had the privilege to build some of the most iconic brands in media. Every step of my career, I have had the opportunity to learn and grow from some of the most inspiring and innovative minds at A+E and in both the creative and business community. I could not be prouder of what we achieved together.   

“Anyone who knows me well knows I am an entrepreneur, creator, rebel and disruptor at heart. I have a famous neon sign in my office that blares ‘Who dares wins.’ After 20 years at A+E, the hardest thing will be to leave the people and company I love. But, as a creative executive and leader, and to stay true to my personal mantra, I need my next dare and my next challenge. 

“I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to our owners at Hearst and The Walt Disney Company for their unwavering support and belief in me over my long career here. I’d especially like to thank Steve and Ben for supporting my decision to write my next chapter.    

“I have supreme confidence in the brave storytellers and management team A+E and I will always be rooting for and watching proudly from the sidelines – even as I head off to my next adventure.”

A+E Networks said it will offer to guarantee that its data-based campaigns will reach specific target audiences, rather than a number of viewers in the traditional broad demographic categories during the upcoming ad market.

The company launched its A+E Precision platform last year and tested it with a handful of clients. Those clients have returned, launching more campaigns using Precision and spending more money.

A+E is also extending the Precision platform to include Viceland, the network A+E owns with Vice Media, and will use the platform to buy audiences for multiplatform campaigns across linear, digital VOD and over-the-top.

TV companies have been diving into data as a way to compete with digital outlets that promise more targeted and accountable advertising. Lately, advertisers have been having doubts about those promises and so ad dollars have been swinging back to TV.

Data enables networks to identify shows that have viewers that fit a marketer’s target consumer and sell those specific audiences, rather than broader audiences measured by Nielsen’s C3 and C7 commercial ratings, which have been falling across the industry.

Santosh Mathai, vice president of analytics & strategic sales partnerships at A+E Networks, said that in the early days, clients still wanted to fall back on guarantees based on Nielsen demographic ratings. Now, they’re more open to transacting on audiences. “If an audience guarantee is something that you’re looking for, we’re open to doing business with you,” he said.

A+E Precision is one of the ways the programmer will offer to work more closely with clients during its upfront presentation and negotiations. During the upfront auctions, cable networks sell more than half of their commercial inventory.

“We’re invested in this space in terms of being able to deliver against audiences, which clients are looking to do,” Mathai said. Precision campaigns have access to inventory on all of A+E Networks. “The schedule is determined by audience discovery,” Mathai said.

“The purpose here is to find the audience and find the audience where you wouldn’t have otherwise seen them,” Jason DeMarco, vice president of programmatic and audience solutions at A+E, added. “If you’re looking to target the soccer mom that might be in the market for a minivan, traditionally you’re not going to air on the History channel. But this will tell you, ‘This actually pops’ at this particular time.”

Mathai said A+E’s initial tests were with clients that also wanted to learn about the space and know their target audiences, in categories including entertainment and financial services. In the early phases, clients achieved “tremendous efficiencies” in lowering the cost of reaching their target. “When you look at those numbers, the improvement is in the double digits.”

A+E has also started working with programmatic partners, such as TubeMogul and clypd to sell audience to clients working with buy-side platforms.

Programmatic deals are reviewed before they are finalized, and A+E is setting prices at levels it believes are appropriate based on audience discovery, Mathai said.

Viceland will add several new series targeting its millennial audience to its original programming lineup over the next two months, the network said Tuesday.

New series launches include Payday, which follows the lives of four 20-somethiings over the course of a single pay period; Big Night Out, which showcases how millennials party around the world, and BongAppétit, which follows cooks who create high-end, cannabis-infused foods, said network officials.

RELATED: Taking a Chance on Viceland (subscription required).

In addition, the network said it has renewed two series – skateboard-reality competition show King Of The Road (pictured) and pot-culture docuseries Weediquette.

In a release, Vice Media CEO Shane Smith said: “I am just tickled pink to announce Viceland's new series and also very happy with how our distributors across the board like DirecTV are embracing Viceland not only on traditional platforms but OTT as well. Viceland continues to grow in audience and reach with our core cohorts being millennials. We are having a lot of fun with Viceland and see this as only the beginning of our evolution as a brand. Vive la difference!”

On the distribution front, DirecTV will add Viceland to its Select, Entertainment and Choice packages, adding to the network's reach on the satellite-TV service, and will offer Viceland on the upcoming DirecTV Now OTT service.

Wednesday’s 33rd Annual Walter Kaitz Foundation dinner raised nearly $1.7 million as the pay TV industry honored A+E Networks and the National Association of Independent Latino Producers (NALIP) for their efforts to foster diversity, NCTA said today. Money raised by the Kaitz dinner supports the Emma L. Bowen Foundation, the National Association of Multi-ethnicity in Communications and Women in Cable Telecommunications.  

A+E Networks CEO Nancy Dubuc accepted the Diversity Champion award for the programmer’s efforts to promote women and minorities in leadership roles. The programmer, which includes networks like History Channel, Viceland and Lifetime, has used its influence – it reaches 330 million TV watchers worldwide and 500 million digital users – to touch on topics like racial diversity and sexuality. History’s remake of Roots was a success this year and brought the groundbreaking story of slavery and individuality to a whole new generation. At Viceland, programs like travel documentary Gaycation explore sexual orientation and the cultural dynamics of foreign LGBTQ communities.  

NALIP executive director Axel Caballero accepted the Diversity Advocate award for the organization, which was formed 17 years ago to advance the professional interests of Latino content creators.

Under Caballero, who joined NALIP three years ago, the organization has expanded its outreach by creating “incubators,” a series of initiatives that allow Latino content creators to gather together, share their best work, network and receive training that take their careers to the next level. Combined with NALIP’s array of mentorship programs, media summits and showcases which bring together key players in the cable, media and entertainment worlds, the organization has expanded the meaning of what being a producer means.

The dinner, held at the New York Marriott Marquis (the theme was Inclusion. Impact. Inspiration) on Sept. 21, was hosted by CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield. The dinner committee was headed by Turner Broadcasting System chairman and CEO John Martin and Charter Communications chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge.

BitTorrent has named Harrison Bohrman news director for BitTorrent News, a live-streaming service being developed by the file-sharing and video platform company.

Bohrman will be responsible for building the yet-to-be launched TV news service's first editorial team and will also head up its production and development.

Most recently a senior creatve development producer at Viceland, the new Vice Media-A+E Networks joint venture aimed at millennials, Bohrman was previously a writer/producer at CNN.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Shane Smith, Vice Media co-founder and CEO, is not a man accustomed to taking things lying down. And yet there he was one Friday evening last month, admittedly with a few ales in him, lying prone on stage at Manhattan’s Chelsea Piers, talking up his company’s virtues and history through a microphone before a packed house of mainly millennials.

It was the last of the 2016 NewFront events, and Smith was heaping the attention on Viceland, the few-months-old cable network that took over the dial space of A+E Networks’s unplugged H2 channel, premiering in 70 million homes. Since H2 was preaching to a whole other, older demo, it made sense for Smith to tout from the floor that Viceland had experienced the “fastest f--king aging down of a network in the history of television.”

A few moments later, Smith rose to his feet and soon began shouting the lyrics to 1970s punk band Sham 69’s “If the Kids Are United.” With the night’s house band playing along, Smith loudly sang the chorus, “If the kids are united/then we’ll never be divided.”

It played like a fitting rallying cry for Smith’s new millennials-focused cable network. But the man has quite the task in front of him with Viceland, and a climb that could run at the same angle as the six verticals he talked about launching at the NewFronts.

Smith has said Viceland will accomplish what many regard as two of the most dificult goals in current-day television: make the kind of content that will lure lots of persnickety millennials to traditional live and C3 viewing, and create a successful new cable network in a world of skinny bundles and cord-cutters.

The digital media company is valued at about $4.5 billion, but it’s playing with a bunch of high-profile, newer-blood investments from such foundational industry concerns as The Walt Disney Co., Hearst and 21st Century Fox, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars each. The pressure to succeed may not yet be high, but how long before the suits start calling Smith and network creative director Spike Jonze with a sigh and suggestions — especially if the Nielsen numbers the network isn’t yet reporting don’t rise?

Granted, it’s early — fittingly enough, Viceland launched on leap day this year — but the safe bet is that a network sporting series with titles such as Gaycation, Weediquette, Balls Deep and F---k, That’s Delicious has the deck stacked against it.

That, of course, is the safe bet. But Smith, who has spent his share of time gambling and imbibing in Las Vegas, isn’t interested in the odds against his platform-agnostic concern making bank. Certainly not at the NewFronts, as he worked the room with a wicked smile, a woman on each arm and a bearded cable executive at his ear.

The Vice Media sensibility is everywhere here: It would be a challenge to find another party that would attract such a radiant mix of power suits, neck tattoos and Founding Father wigs (worn by Vice execs, ready to answer your questions). For Smith, the question comes down to how he measures success, and an answer that offers what he believes is his most abiding weapon.

“I don’t know — having fun. Enjoying myself. Not dying,” he began with a chuckle. “I mean, the usual metrics: Growth, money … but content. If I’m proud of the stuff we’re making, that makes me happiest.”

CONTENT BUBBLE

Smith has every reason to see Viceland’s content as the ultimate game-changer, given the company’s track record for bringing eyeballs to other platforms with a youth-minded élan. The only issue is, the competition is now overwhelmingly crowded for those eyeballs, to the point where, one year after FX Networks CEO John Landgraf declared, “There is simply too much television,” the ability to stand out gets increasingly dificult.

Viceland’s wild card is its long-honed formula for producing cross-platform successes in the years since Vice began as a Canadian magazine in 1994, moving from Montreal to New York in 2001 and continuing its multimedia expansion. The company’s content has reached more than 150 million non-linear viewers to date across all platforms, from video-on-demand to YouTube, from Facebook to Apple TV and other apps.

The hope is that Viceland’s shows — a mix of immersive documentary series and reality fare — will build a homestead on the frontier land of cable. But while the style of shooting may be familiar enough to fans of anything from TMZ to 30 for 30 to Storage Wars, series devoted to subjects from gay lifestyle and travel to marijuana use aren’t, on the surface, quite as common to traditional viewers as, say, Chopped and Love It or List It.

“It doesn’t look like your mother’s cable network,” Bill Carroll, senior vice president and director of content strategy for Katz Television Group, said. “You see a lot of these entities like Vice looking at … [being] available through mainstream media. Whether they’re mainstream is a different conversation.”

In a sense, the more relevant conversations are: Can Viceland bring ad dollars in, despite the fact that the company is not publicly sharing Nielsen figures, and is the content of a quality that people will want to tune in and come back for more?

The list of clients on the network at present includes some big names — Samsung, Unilever, Bank of America, Diageo, T-Mobile and Toyota — including several that have followed the company from earlier digital incarnations to the cable network. The network has also eschewed, by necessity or design, some of the typical spot count numbers for more custom messaging.

“We really believe that when advertisers come to the network, it should be more relevant,” said Guy Slattery, who moved over from his vice president of marketing post at A&E to become GM of Viceland earlier this year. “We try to make custom messaging for our clients that will be on the most relevant platform for them, and a lot of client partners on the digital side come in wanting to work on the network side.”

That includes Unilever’s Tresemmé brand tying in with Broadly, Vice’s vertical that looks at women’s experiences, and Bushmills Black Bush Whiskey in spots with Thomas Morton, the longtime Vice contributor who now hosts Viceland’s investigative series, Balls Deep.

It’s folks such as Morton who are really key to the growth of the cable network, Slattery maintained. Showcasing the kind of filming and editing de rigueur in current docuseries, Viceland’s slate represents the passions of the young filmmakers behind them. Weediquette is correspondent Krishna Andavolu’s take on pot culture; Gaycation follows actress Ellen Page and her friend Ian Daniel exploring LGBTQ culture the world over; and Huang’s World finds Eddie Huang searching for meaning and identity with a healthy serving of food thrown in. The faces are fresh and new, but familiar to fans of Vice platforms. And the content has a sensibility of wonder about it. When Vice World of Sports host Selema Masekela watches a boxing match in the episode “The Boys of Bukom,” about a slum village in Ghana that has produced an inordinate number of fighting champions, his wide-eyed shouts of “whoa!” imply he’s just as amazed as he believes we should be.

“We don’t consider them hosts,” Slattery said. “They’re the people creating the shows, the executive producers. We really believe in finding people with a point of view who will tell it, rather than a network creating a show and casting a host for it. These are their passions.”

Those passions are meant to stir up millennials who have, through reams of research, professed concern and commitment for myriad social issues that are covered on many Viceland shows (a tie the network is banking on advertisers buying into). The format, which works to great success on HBO’s Emmy-winning Vice documentary show, harkens back to TV stalwarts such as 60 Minutes.

“It’s a more natural form of storytelling and it was always the hallmark of 60 Minutes, which got rid of the traditional imperious narrator and replaced it with highly idiosyncratic individuals, such as Mike Wallace, Morley Safer and Ed Bradley,” said Jon Klein, CEO and cofounder of digital network builder Tapp Media and former president of CNN/U.S., who also oversaw 60 Minutes for a time when he was at CBS. “In a sense, Vice continues the 60 Minutes tradition. Those are authentic voices and they found a way to capture that. That’s the lingua franca of journalism today.”

Whether or not that formula helps to bring in viewers and advertisers remains anybody’s guess — and it’s a difficult equation.

“It’s very early to be looking at any performance of a channel,” Klein said. “And I don’t know any successful launch of any channel. Traditional cable is a very tough road to hoe. But Vice has created a mystique around the brand and, what’s more, you can watch Viceland in any number of ways even if you don’t get cable.”

DECENT EXPOSURE

While Smith and Co. do their level best to maintain their media maverick cred, they’ve balanced it with expanded ties to other major outlets. A new pact will allow Vice to develop short-form shows for ESPN TV and digital properties, with a trade of some 30 for 30 segments airing on Viceland. Every bit of exposure will help the network.

Still, it’s another safe bet that the on-air and off -air attitude of Viceland won’t fall under the rubric of traditional television. When asked to recommend the right first Viceland show for this writer’s 21-year-old daughter, Slattery said, “Weediquette — most 21-yearolds like smoking weed, right?” While that may not be a Leslie Moonves-type answer, that seems to be the point — in an already disrupted TV world, maybe something more untraditional is needed to bring millennials in.

That appeared to be Smith’s attitude at the NewFront. When asked the same question, he suggested Gaycation or “some of our environmental stuff — we’ve got to change the world.”

If that’s really Smith’s goal — yet another lofty one — Viceland is his latest tool, and regardless of safe bets or long odds, it’s probably wise not to doubt his commitment to the game, regardless of when or how it may end.

“I believe in the future,” he said, as he was swept off into the NewFront crowd. “I don’t ever wanna be fully satisfied.”

Viceland: The Chief Assets

Key personnel: Shane Smith, CEO; Spike Jonze and Eddy Moretti, co-presidents

Premier advertisers: PLC, Bank of America Corp., Diageo, Shinola, Bushmills, Mailchimp, Samsung, T-Mobile USA, Toyota and Unilever

Blue-chip content:

Balls Deep: Thomas Morton hits the road — to a tent revival in Arkansas, to Michigan to spend Ramadan with a Muslim family, to Alaska to live off the land — to delve into humanity and what it all means.

Gaycation: Ellen Page and her BFF Ian Daniel find out how the world deals with LGBTQ issues; stops include Japan, Brazil, Jamaica and, infamously, Iowa, where they had a little chat with Ted Cruz.

Huang’s World: Eddie Huang eats tuna sperm in Italy, checks out panda porn in China and drinks poop-infused coffee in Shanghai in this travel, food, search-for-self series.

Noisey: Zach Goldbaum looks at the culture and chief figures in some of the world’s most fascinating music scenes. At the same time, he delves into anything from violence to drugs and gangs to Wayne Newton.

States of Undress: Hailey Gates explores global fashion and issues that go way beyond the runway, from China’s clothing manufacturing to cultures that insist on women wearing burkas.

Vice World of Sports: Selema Masekela covers boxing in Bukom (in Ghana), soccer in a Ugandan prison and baseball in Cuba.

Weediquette: Krishna Andavolu explores the new “pot paradigm,” looking at the marijuana business and culture from the Congo to Amsterdam, and California to Colorado.

July premieres on Viceland:

Black Market: Michael K. Williams looks at underground economies and folks finding ways to survive in the U.S. and around the world, from carjackers in N.J. to poachers in South Africa.

Cyberwar: Ben Makuch introduces us to hackers, dissidents, government officials and others involved in the confusing and frightening world of cyberwarfare.

Dead Set on Life: Canadian chef Matty Matheson serves up everything from a $6 gas station sub to the culinary wonders of Winnipeg’s Filipino community — and lots in between.

Party Legends: Lance Bangs brings us — through art and animation — to some parties we all wish we could have attended, courtesy of Fred Armisen, Margaret Cho, Dennis Rodman, Bobcat Goldthwait and many more.

Vice Does America: Abdullah Saeed, Wilbert L. Cooper and Martina De Alba take us up close and personal to the voting public during this most insanely weird election.

The Shane Smith Empire: Vice Media at a Glance

Key personnel: Shane Smith, CEO; Eddy Morretti, chief creative officer; Spike Jonze, creative director

Valuation: $4.2 billion-$4.5 billion

Key Investors: 21st Century Fox, Disney, Technology Crossover Ventures

Multiplatform Outlets:

Vice(HBO series): Emmy-winning newsmagazine exec produced by Bill Maher

Vice Books: Featuring collections of works and photos tied into the magazine

Vice Films: Outlet for feature-length documentary releases

The Vice Guide to Everything: MTV series featuring Vice Films releases and other documentary-based episodes.

Vicemagazine: Founded in 1994, focuses on art, culture, news

Vice Music: Company has released product from a variety of artists, including Snoop Dogg

VBS.tv: Company’s web-only video channel; launched in deal with MTV Networks and Logo Group.

Verticals: Six new ones launched, bringing total to 17

Worldwide channels: Plans to launch 20 more worldwide

SOURCE: Vice Media

RELATED:Iger Backs Hulu Live Streaming Plan

Flat revenue at its media networks division and a decline in ad sales at A&E and ESPN helped The Walt Disney Co. to slower than expected growth in the fiscal second quarter, as consolidated revenue rose 4% and  net income increased 2% in the period.

The results were short of Wall Street expectations, which helped drive Disney shares down 6.4% ($6.85 per share) to $99.75 in afterhours trading.

At the Media Networks, revenue was flat at $5.8 billion, as a 3% gain in broadcast revenue as offset by a 2% decline in cable network revenue. Operating income at the unit was up 9% to $2.3 billion, as lower programming costs and higher affiliate fees at ESPN were partially offset by lower ad sales at the sports network and A&E. The conversion of its H2 channel to Viceland durg the period also had a negative impact on the quarter, Disney said.

“We’re very pleased with our overall results in Q2, which marks our 11th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth in adjusted EPS,” said Disney chairman and CEO Robert Iger in a statement. “Our Studio’s unprecedented winning streak at the box office underscores the incredible appeal of our branded content, which we continue to leverage across the entire company to drive significant value. Looking forward, we are thrilled with the Studio’s slate and tremendously excited about the June 16th grand opening of the spectacular Shanghai Disney Resort.”   

The long-awaited launch of Viceland, Vice Media’s answer to stodgy cable programming, launched as expected in 70 million homes on Monday, taking a spot that was previously occupied by History Channel’s H2.

The launch has been anticipated for months and Vice Media has promised a steady stream of millennial focused programming, with unscripted shows like Gaycation, hosted by movie actress Ellen Page; the self-explanatory Weediquette and Balls Deep, which promises to be an in-depth investigative show. The channel is taking an unconventional path initially, airing a 13-hour block showing various staff members at the Vice Media offices in Brooklyn, N.Y., sitting at a conference table with a countdown clock superimposed on the screen, playing messages from callers who answered the question “What Keeps You Up At Night,” that was part of the channel’s ad campaign. Viceland took out a full-page ad in The New York Times with the question and a number to call.

Vice Media continues to air its news documentary show, Vice News, on Home Box Office. Founded by Shane Smith in 1994, Vice started out as a music magazine but evolve into a full-fleged multi-platform media group witH international television channels and a strong online presence. The company has attracted investment from media heavy hitters like the Walt Disney Co., 21st Century Fox and advertising giant WPP.

When Viceland debuts on February 29, its commercial model will include a cap of eight minutes per hour and an offer of content marketing "takeover" pods for a single advertiser. The new network produced by Vice Media, the fast-growing, multiplatform reality programmer, will replace the channel now used by A+E Networks' H2, which reaches 70 million households.

Viceland's advertising approach reflects other experimental commercial moves by programmers including Turner, Viacom and others to reinvent the cable advertising structure, including reliance on programmatic buying.

In the case of the Viceland cable network, Vice Media is selling hybrid ad packages that include commercial time on the TV network as well as messages on its other platforms. A+E is involved with some unspecified advertising plans for the channel, according to published reports. Neither Vice Media nor A+E responded to requests for comments about their ad plans.

Viceland's ad structure is intended to minimize commercial clutter and build stronger sponsorship connections to the content, according to media buyers interviewed by AdAge, which first ran the story. The media buyers indicated tad pricing would be at "premium" (high) rates, although none of the companies involved has revealed commercial pricing plans.

Along with reduced clutter, some shows may run without spot commercials, with marketers able to buy ad pods for content marketing or other sponsorships, sources said. Marketers may be able to use Vice Media's content study and its talent to create content, presumably reflecting the nitty-gritty style of its programming and focused on lengthier-than-usual messages.

Media buyers familiar with the agenda said that Viceland's commercial rate is more expensive than some of the top 10 cable networks, especially since its initial viewership estimates are relatively small (an estimated 0.1 rating, according to published reports). Yet, Vice is emphasizing that its programming will attract the important millennial-aged market. During its first few years of operation, Vice Media has been able to reach desirable young audiences, which the company intends to pursue via its new linear channel.

Vice has said that at launch, it will offer eight original primetime series and that most of its content will be produced in-house, although it will run some films.

RELATED:Viceland Network Preview Video

Now that Vice Media finally has a cable channel, the question is whether it can successfully transition from a Web-based distributor of short- and long-form content to a full-fledged linear programmer.

Vice, which is known for its news and documentary content targeted to educated, 18-to-34-year-old millennials, will take over A+E Networks outlet H2 in January with its new, tentatively titled Viceland network. Viceland promises to provide a new outlet for younger viewers seeking quality programming and for advertisers seeking new opportunities to reach that very elusive audience, which is viewing less and less linear content.

Original shows that already have been earmarked for the new network include such titles as Gaycation, with actress Ellen Page; Huang’s World, featuring comedian Eddie Huang; Noisey; Vice World of Sports; Black Market; and Weediquette.

Vice’s established ability to monetize its video programming factored into the A+E transaction. While A+E — which invested $250 million in Vice Media in August 2014 — will oversee technical operations and distribution for Viceland, it will work with Vice on ad sales and sponsorships for the 70 million-plus-subscriber channel. A+E Networks, a joint venture of The Walt Disney Co. and Hearst, also owns A&E, History, Lifetime, LMN and FYI.

“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,” Vice CEO and co-founder Shane Smith said in a release about the channel deal.

The strategy may sound good in theory, but the industry may not be ready for such a radical change in operations.

“There’s always resistance to different approaches, particularly by established advertisers,” Bill Carroll, senior vice president and director of content strategy for Katz Media Group, said. “But over time, all of them come to the realization — especially if they’re trying to reach a certain segment of the market — that they have to go where those consumers are. There are advertisers that are targeting this younger, more educated demographic and are more willing to experiment in that way.”

Vice will almost certainly bring a younger viewer to H2, which during the third quarter had a median average age of 57. (For more on H2’s performance, see the Ratings Intelligence breakdown.)

HBO certainly has benefited from having the Vice brand on its network. The premium service’s Vice on HBO news and documentary program has averaged 897,000 viewers this year, up from 747,000 viewers in 2014 and 821,000 in its debut season, according to Nielsen live-plus-seven-day ratings.

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

RELATED: The Viceland Network Preview Video

A+E Networks — months after a transaction was first reported as imminent, at the upfronts and newfronts in May — and Vice Media have struck struck a deal that will see the H2 cable network reformatted into a new programming entity with the working title Viceland.

A+E Networks (a joint venture of The Walt Disney Co. and Hearst) hopes the new network, powered by the online content purveyor, will draw advertiser-friendly-age viewers to complement the programmer’s existing History, Lifetime and LMN networks, plus the recently reformatted FYI. Here is an overview of H2’s programming history, with charts and reporting by Ratings Intelligence editor A.J. Katz.

H2

History International was rebranded as H2 at the start of Q4 2011, with its programming getting refocused to feature documentary content from sister network History (before History shifted towards more reality series).

In addition to airing repeats of newer History series like Vikings, Pawn Stars and The Curse of Oak Island, among others, H2 has provided its viewers with original programs over the years.

Top H2 series over time include America Unearthed, America’s Book of Secrets, and newer ones like Brad Meltzer’s Lost History, and In Search of Aliens.

America Unearthed was H2’s first original series, and stands as the channel’s highest-rated and most-watched series of all time. The series premiered in December 2012. Season 3 ended in Q1 2015.

Modern Marvels, Ancient Aliens and The Universe and were History originals that would eventually leave History and air new episodes on H2.

Seventy-seven telecasts of Ancient Aliens aired on H2 from October 2011 through December 2014. H2 aired new episodes beginning in February of 2012; the series returned to History in 2015.

Ninety-eight telecasts of Modern Marvels aired from the network’s inception in September 2011 through 2012; and 70 telecasts of The Universe aired from 2011 to 2014.

H2 has not premiered an original series in 2015. Museum Men (pictured), airing from last November through this February, was H2’s final original.

RATINGS

Average total viewers for H2 hit a high in 2014. First-quarter 2014 was the most-watched quarter in network history. Q4 2014 was not far behind. After an annual increase in total viewers from the end of 2011 through 2014, H2 started to lose steam this year.

Primetime ratings for H2 in P18-49, 25-54 and total viewers have declined on a quarter-to-quarter basis in 2015 to date. H2 is currently averaging 301,000 total live-plus-same-day viewers this quarter to date, its lowest quarterly average since Q3 of 2013. The median age of an H2 viewer this quarter is an all-time high 57.8 years old.

This viewership drop is no surprise. When the Vice deal heated up this spring, all premieres were moved from H2 to History in order to try to gain back some of the core viewers. H2 is mainly airing repeats of History/H2 programming as a result of the upcoming rebrand.

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."