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“Just you wait”: Marc Fennell defends VICELAND switch

The Feed presenter says Viceland will bring SBS more in-line with its charter than some of SBS2's existing content.

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The Feed presenter Marc Fennell has defended the plan to rebrand SBS 2 as SBS VICELAND in November.

On his website Fennell wrote about the kind of content that will feature on the channel as being more ‘on charter’ than much of the current content.

“When the Viceland move was first discussed internally at SBS months ago I took the time to go through all of the shows that Viceland had produced and I was floored,” he wrote.

“SBS will make an announcement very soon about the shows that will launch on the channel but let me assure you that I have seen stunning programmes on music, sexuality, feminism, technology, sports, food, alcohol, terrorism and yes, good ole fashioned drugs that simply blew me away. Beautiful filmmaking, great characters and stunning storytelling. There are programmes that both revel in hipsterism and utterly challenge it by showing you a world that almost never gets shown on tv. And certainly never shown with this panache.

Conceding that the US-Canadian Vice Media seems like “an odd fit” he said the content explores a multicultural world through the prisms of music, sex, the environment, film and food.

“I believe deeply in SBS’s capacity to capture the diversity of the world in a way that is informative and utterly entertaining. Frankly, this move will bring SBS2 far more in-line with our charter than some of our existing content. Certainly not ‘losing our way’ as some have suggested.

“Is a lot of the Viceland content produced by UK & US producers? Yeah. But we’re also bringing you a lot of those iconic programmes that only SBS can. That’s why it’s a partnership.”

SBS is yet to announce the programming for the channel and whether the program supply deal is based on a revenue sharing agreement with Vice Media.

“Come November 15, SBS Viceland & The Feed will bring you Walkley and Logie-nominated Australian storytelling every night that is diverse, fun and generally bats way above its average for a multichannel. And as for the shows around us on the channel and on SBS OnDemand? Well, as I said…. just you wait,” he wrote.

10 Responses

  1. I’d probably watch The Feed it Fennell was replaced.. actually I’d probably watch Insight if Brockie was given a rest. I think this ‘experiment’ with VJ programming at both SBS and ABC2 hasn’t really found an audience… alternative, young hipsters don’t watch TV they watch laptops and devices. The BBC 2/3/4 channels in the UK are aimed at an older demographic, I don’t think we have the population to sustain or indeed justify the cost of this type of programming. If a tiny amount of the budget was used to create our own local production of shows like Michael Moseley, Martin Clunes etc I think more people would tune in for ‘first run’ of these programs. That Moseley episode last night was a repeat? on SBS1? I think SBS has lost its edge… and its ‘ethnicity’… or perhaps we’ve all grown up and become the same, homogenized boring person.

    1. Shows like The Feed and The Project are amongst those that play very well to their online audience. Jenny Brockie is just about as good as they come as forum hosts, as recent poll suggested. Its long run is a credit to her.

    2. Have to agree a bit that I would like to see more docos from an Aussie perspective. They recently did a bunch of diet documentaries and everything was about Britain and the British food industry (though there was one from Ireland which was a nice change) and 90% of history documentaries seem to be about British history. A few years ago I saw an Australian made documentary on the ancient history of Afghanistan, and even more recent an Australian science series about the human body, and an Australian series about the Australian fishing industry and I was thinking these are good series, how come we don’t make more documentaries from an Australian perspective?

  2. I personally am not interested in “on charter”, I quite like how the channel exists now.
    With movie-thons and themed weeks (like 80’s), Danger 5 style shows.

    This feels like a real bummer.

  3. Vice jumped the shark when it was taken over. Once trendy and hipsterish, old media types thought they could buy it and it would stay on the edge regardless. It reminds me of how MySpace suddenly became uncool and old school when it was bought by Rupert Murdoch.

  4. VICE was good once, then it was sold, and now it appears to be taken over by rabid SJW’s. Look at their pointless attack on Elon Musk and who he’s following on Twitter. One is changing the course of mankind, the other has nothing better to do than take fake swipes at perceived injustices.

    Well done SBS on the purchase of extremely niche programming that’s better suited to the fringes of YouTube. I bet they watched their old stuff, not the stuff they’re making now.

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