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The C$100 million ($89.43 million) deal announced by the
companies on Thursday includes plans for a Vice TV network
across Canada. The studio is due to launch some time next year.
Rogers, one of Canada's biggest cable and wireless phone
providers, hopes the deal will help it better connect with 18-
to 35-year-olds, who are much more likely to consume media
online or on mobile devices.
Vice's counter-culture content and news coverage has struck a
chord with young people across magazines, online video,
television and movies. It recently showed an on-the-ground
reporting series from within Islamic State territory in Syria.
"We're going to shake up Canada with exciting, provocative
content and we'll export it around the world," Rogers Chief
Executive Guy Laurence said in a statement.
For Vice, which began as a Montreal punk magazine in 1994 but is
now based in New York, the deal is further proof its maverick
approach can attract deep-pocketed investors and partners. Last
month it secured $500 million in fundraising which valued the
group at more than $2.5 billion.
"This year we return to the homeland, all our hard lessons
learned, to build from scratch a completely horizontally and
vertically integrated ultra-modern media entity," Vice founder
and CEO Shane Smith said in the statement.
The Vice Canada studio will be run under Vice's creative
direction, producing bite-sized content adapted for mobile
devices as well as longer-form news, drama and documentary
programming.
Wireless customers of Rogers and its cheaper brand Fido can also
expect some exclusive content, the companies said.
(Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson and Richard Chang)
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