Vice now has $500 million to build the next iteration of their business. It will be interesting to see where they go beyond expanding their footprint by covering different subjects and opening up new audience targets. Their core business is selling ads around video and delivering branded content targeting under 40 year old males, which is a valuable demographic (just look at NFL TV rights), how does this model scale beyond their current $2.5 billion valuation? From the previous investment by A&E and failed negotiations with Turner it was rumored they want to run a cable TV channel.
My question is why? The shift towards on demand programming is moving at a rapid pace and the revenue model where cable providers pay high carriage fees is on the way out. There is also the high cost of creating enough TV quality content to fill a network schedule, their margins would unquestionably suffer. As eyeballs shift towards mobile devices (especially phones) it would make sense for them to focus on what has been delivering staggering growth at high margins in the near term. Regardless of how they move forward it will be one of the most interesting things to watch in the media and advertising space.
Rob Sheard 