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Tuesday, March 01, 2016

How Vice's new cable network plans to revolutionize TV and bring back millennials

Vice finally has a television playland — something it has been working on for a few years now.

On Monday, Viceland launches with the goal of bringing millennials back to TV or squeezing out the final millions who found their way to the aging machine and converting them to users of the media brand's other platforms.

Why TV when its millennial audience is dipping in viewership? Vice co-creator Shane Smith wasn't going to miss out on the money Vice could be making now, because, as he put it, "75% of the world's advertising budget" is still being used on TV.

"Why don't I get that 75% while all these other guys who don't know what the f--k they're doing are getting it?" he asked the Hollywood Reporter in a recent cover interview laden with profanity.

The Viceland deal is full of new ideas, but network partner A+E sees it as a worthy gamble since the channel it's transitioning, H2, wasn't doing well anyway.

In many ways, Viceland is not following the standard protocol for a TV network. And, that's the intention.

Here are five ways Viceland is breaking the TV industry's rules:

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Publishers Notes: If you have not seen or followed this show, I highly recommend it.

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