HBO Adds Vice Daily Newscast in 4-Year Contract Extension
HBO is entering the daily news business with longtime partner Vice, after signing a deal on Thursday to expand programming from the guerrilla news service and extend its contract through 2018.
The Vice daily newscast will consist of five 30-minute shows per week, 48 weeks per year. The addition of this new series also represents the first daily show of any sort in HBO’s history.
Also included in the deal is a four-year extension of the Emmy winning weekly “VICE” series, with an increase from 14 to 35 episodes per year, and a commitment for 32 Vice-produced longform specials through 2018.
Additionally, the HBO Now service will add a Vice-branded channel.
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“This deal, simply put, allows Vice the freedom to go after any story, anywhere we find it – and to do so with complete independence,” Vice CEO and founder Shane Smith said in a statement.
The daily newscast will feature the same style of field reporting for which Vice has come to be known and pull stories from its network of more than 30 bureaus worldwide.
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