When media startup and news publication Vice launches its newly announced Viceland television network, it will be available on IP-based TV service Sling TV.
“When H2 becomes Vice[land], Sling TV will carry it. The programmer is still finalizing the exact date, but I can confirm that we’ll get Vice at the same time as other distributors,” a Sling TV spokesperson told Gigaom via email.
News of Vice’s TV network was first announced earlier this week, with Vice agreeing to take over and rebrand A&E’s “H2” channel, which currently serves as a sister station to the more well-known History channel. And while the majority of TV service providers will likely continue to carry H2 when it switches to Viceland, it isn’t necessarily a given. For example, Time Warner Cable dropped Current TV — the news and current events network cofounded by former vice president Al Gore — when it switched over to Al Jazeera America.
That said, I’m happy to hear that there won’t be any temporary blackout of H2 on Sling TV once Vice does take over — as now you’re getting a completely different station for that $20/month base price instead of repackaged History reruns. That’s not to say Viceland won’t have to strive to maintain viewership, even if it’s limiting the number of commercials and featuring content that’s more thoughtful and informative than most other cable networks. (Again, I remember when Current TV was actually good despite no one watching. And then it wasn’t, due to decisions made to boost viewership.)
In addition to Viceland, Sling TV also recently added millennial-focused Fusion to its News channel bundle and was among the first to offer brand new channels from popular multi-channel network Maker.
Sling TV confirms it will carry Vice’s new ‘Viceland’ channel originally published by Gigaom, © copyright 2015.
Related research and analysis from Gigaom Research:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
- Comparing Amazon EC2’s C3 and C4 Families
- What to know when choosing an EMM solution for your enterprise
- Survey: What the Enterprise Cloud Needs to Become Business-Critical
