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SBS VICELAND reveals channel highlights

Black Market, Gaycation, Weediquette, Cyberwar & Balls Deep coming to new youth-branded SBS channel.

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SBS has revealed channel highlights for SBS VICELAND which replaced SBS 2 programming from November 15.

The announcement comes just a day after managing director Michael Ebeid told a Senate Estimates hearing the content deal with US-Canadian Vice Media was financially beneficial as it meant not dealing with individual programme suppliers.

SBS has sought to stress it has cherry-picked the best “on charter” content from Vice for the youth-skewing channel, covering topics such as cultural issues, race, identity, gender, music, technology, fashion, food, travel, sports, and more.

These will play alongside selected SBS 2 titles which will remain including The Feed, SBS PopAsia, A League, If You Are The One, South Park, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Brooklyn Nine Nine and foreign language news bulletins.

 

Amongst the new SBS VICELAND titles are Black Market, Gaycation, States of Undress, Weediquette, F*ck That’s Delicious, VICE World of Sports, VICE News Tonight, Cut-Off, Cyberwar, Balls Deep, and Noisey.

There are a handful of Australian-based VICE titles too, although it isn’t clear if these will all screen on broadcast television or possibly online.

SBS Director of Television and Online Content, Marshall Heald, said: “SBS’s second digital channel has been the home of programs from around the world exploring youth and emerging cultures since SBS 2 re-launched in 2013. Now SBS VICELAND takes this to a new level with a truly cutting-edge, contemporary mix of local and international programs, made by young people, for young people, tackling the issues that matter to them today.

“Combining the much-loved shows of SBS 2 with the best of VICELAND’s unique global programming never before seen in Australia, SBS VICELAND will celebrate diversity in different ways, exposing people to new cultures and ideas, and helping young people understand the world in which we all exist. This is SBS unashamedly delivering on our purpose to provide multicultural and multilingual programs that inspire, inform and entertain, in a way that strongly connects to young Australians.”

VICE Australia Managing Director, Michael Slonim, said: “For young Australians wanting to expand their world view and feed their curiosity about life, we hope SBS VICELAND becomes an important cultural touchstone. The channel will be a place they can turn to for unique perspectives about so many of the things that they care about.”

Amongst some of the criticisms levelled at the new youth channel are its under-performing numbers in some markets overseas, and questions about whether Vice Media has any revenue-sharing from the channel. Yesterday senators failed to question the managing director on SBS VICELAND.

The new channel launches at 4pm Tuesday 15 November, effectively ending the 7 year run of SBS 2.

A full schedule is yet to be released.

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VICE is committed to telling the world’s most compelling stories in new and ever better ways, spanning all corners of culture and featuring a diverse range of talent, filmmakers and fresh new voices. Since launching in 2003, VICE Australia has been producing award-winning editorial and video programming for young Australian audiences, across a network of digital channels spanning news, culture, music, fashion, tech and sports.

Editorial highlights include a compelling documentary series covering the Indigenous experience of incarceration in Australia; a 2016 Federal Election podcast, hosted by comedian Aamer Rahman; and video series across its food channel Munchies, The Creators Project, and the female-focussed Broadly.

SBS VICELAND also presents an exciting opportunity for SBS and VICE to work together in the future to produce Australian programs for the channel.

Here’s what Australians can expect on SBS VICELAND from 15 November:

Black Market
Actor Michael K. Williams (The Wire, The Night Of) meets society’s outcasts, from poachers in South Africa to carjackers in New Jersey, heroin-addicted shoplifters in London to stick-up boys in Brooklyn, in an unflinching look into the lives of the people who work in underworld economies. Drawing on his own past living on the fringes, Williams gains unprecedented access into these worlds, treading a dangerous line to bring us a glimpse of lifestyles that many of us rarely see.

Gaycation
Actress Ellen Page (Juno, Inception) and her best friend, Ian Daniel, set off on a journey to explore LGBTQI cultures around the world. From Japan to Brazil, they discover the multiplicity of LGBTQI experiences through amazing people and their stories of struggle and triumph. From the threat of the rising far-right in Ukraine to the deep-rooted traditions of India, Ellen and Ian gain an understanding of how queer people navigate their identities around the globe in this Emmy- nominated program.

Weediquette
We are living in an age of radical transformation for the culture of marijuana. VICE correspondent Krishna Andavolu explores the world of weed by meeting people whose lives hang in the balance of a new pot paradigm. Krishna explores the ethics of marijuana use and legalisation, from those who say their lives have been improved by the drug to those who say they’ve been negatively impacted. Weediquette is a multi-faceted, diverse look at the plant that is sure to stimulate debate.

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F*ck, That’s Delicious
F*ck, That’s Delicious follows rap’s greatest bon vivant, Action Bronson as he travels the world meeting like-minded pleasure-seekers and eating his fair share of everything. Whether working his way through tagines in Morocco, paella in Barcelona, Italian in Melbourne, or Vietnamese food in Cabramatta, Action shows us that life is to be enjoyed as much as possible.

VICE News Tonight
VICE News Tonight brings an indispensable alternative source of international news to viewers, breaking major stories with its unique brand of intrepid, investigative journalism and hard-hitting storytelling. Airs weeknights at 7pm on SBS VICELAND, fast tracked from the US.

States of Undress
Former model Hailey Gates explores global fashion and issues the industry often ignores, showing us what the world wears, and why. Hayley travels to Palestine where fashion week is offering some women freedom of self-expression, Pakistan and Venezuela where expression through clothing is highly dangerous, and Russia where sanctions make it difficult for western fashion supply to meet demand, among other destinations.

Cut-Off
Cut-off is a special documentary on struggle and hope for youth in remote Canadian Indigenous communities. It’s about Indigenous youth facing each day with resilience, coping amid states of emergency over suicide epidemics, a lack of access to clean water and infrastructure breakdown. The documentary follows Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s exclusive visit to an isolated reserve.

Balls Deep
There are over seven billion lives happening on earth right now, and most are pretty interesting. To find out what humanity’s deal is, Thomas Morton hangs out with different groups of people and gives their lives a try, whether it’s living with a Muslim family fasting for the holy month of Ramadan, or living off some of the least live-off-able land on earth with the Eskimos and Innuit of Northern Alaska.

VICE World of Sports
VICE World of Sports chronicles unique stories from around the world that illustrate the relationship between sport and society. Host Selema Masekela travels to places such as Ghana, Cuba, and Kenya, among many others, to tell compelling stories that explore broad cultures, politics, places and people through the one thing connects them all: sport.

Cyberwar
Ben Makuch travels the world to meet with hackers, government officials, and dissidents to investigate the ecosystem of cyberwarfare. Ben delves deep into the NSA’s elite hacking force and asks who their targets are; tackles Iran’s ramped up cyber war offensive; explores Syria’s cyber battlefields; examines China’s multiple hacking attacks from Google to the US government, and much more.

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Dead Set on Life
Dead Set on Life is a culinary travel show from the mind of Matty Matheson: a boisterously warm Canadian chef. Matty explores the diverse culinary offering of his native country, including Toronto’s multicultural melting pot, Winnipeg’s Filipino smorgasbord, and the traditional food of the First Nations people Portage La Prairie.

King of the Road
Thrasher’s legendary competition-come-road trip which sees the world’s best skatebaording teams duke it out on the gnarliest stairs, ramps and slabs of skateable concrete.

Noisey
A first-hand look into the cultures and artists behind some of the world’s most compelling music, with each episode focusing on a different global scene.

Alongside these highlights from VICELAND, there’s also the best from SBS 2, including:

The Feed
News. People. Things. Daily. SBS’s award-winning news and current affairs program The Feed brings its new host line-up to SBS VICELAND. Laura Murphy-Oates (NITV) and Michael Hing (ABC’s Good Game) join Marc Fennell, Jeannette Francis and Patrick Abboud to bring young Australians The Feed’s unique mix of news, satire, live interviews and in-depth investigative reporting every night at 7.30pm.

SBS PopAsia
SBS PopAsia is Australia’s number one stop for Asian pop. Hosted by Andy Trieu, the show features the hottest hits from across Asia including the very best K-Pop, J-Pop and C-pop every Sunday morning.

A-League
The weekly Friday night A-League match coverage will be once again hosted by Socceroo and former A-League Champion David Zdrilic along with chief football analyst, Socceroo Craig Foster. Match commentary each week will be provided by David Basheer and former Premier League star Michael Bridges. Reporter Lucy Zelic will be pitch side at each match with player and coach interviews as well as updates throughout the night. The Hyundai A-League is currently live and free on Fridays, 7.30pm (AEDT) on SBS 2.

If You Are the One
A worldwide cultural phenomenon – with particularly obsessive fan base in Australia – If You Are The One is a popular and addictive Chinese dating show.

SBS VICELAND will also feature multiple daily in-language international news services, the beloved South Park which is celebrating its 20th season, critically acclaimed news comedy program Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, award-winning comedy series Brooklyn Nine Nine, not to mention the world’s best cult, arthouse and LOTE films, alongside other favourites.

In the coming months, SBS VICELAND will bring further cutting edge contemporary programming including the Emmy nominated Woman, in which feminist icon Gloria Steinem guides us to the women who are shaping not just their own future, with spotlights on Colombia, Zambia, DRC, Canada, El Salvador, USA, Pakistan; New York Times bestseller Eddie Huang’s culinary adventures in Huang’s World; Grace Neutral’s exploration of global tattoo culture in Needles & Pins; VICE co-founder Suroosh Alvi’s travels around the world to investigate the origins and impact of the world’s deadliest terrorist organisations in Terror, and many more.

SBS VICELAND will replace SBS 2 on television and online platforms, and will be available to all Australians for free.

All programs will be available directly after broadcast to stream exclusively on SBS On Demand.

15 Responses

  1. As long as they commit to screening the shows they already are screening I have to say some of these docos do look quite interesting. I’m glad they aren’t just about America but looking at things from around the world.

  2. I am as old as dirt…but there are quite a few things that David Knox listed…that I would be interested in taking a look at….in fact, most…with the exception of the skate boarding one….my horizons are broad… 🙂

  3. Ok if this is something for young people, this is the wrong message to send. Way too much crazy stuff going on, showing the worst parts of the world. This isn’t helpful for young Australians growing up, this is the kind of stuff that makes them do stupid irrational things and think it’s normal. It’s going to cause instability in their mind. I would definitely not want my kids seeing this. SBS is only going to go downhill. Happy to have multilingual shows for the NESB folk but this is the completely wrong direction to take. Shame on SBS and the government for allowing this to go ahead. We need more local Australian content. The government should also allow advertising so that the SBS budget can expand.

  4. I know, I know, watch before criticising, but I’ve already gone from disappointment over the change, to some interest after reading Marc Fennell’s take on it, but after reading the descriptions above I’m returning to disappointment. This is looking like a big misjudgment of the audience and thematically so many of these shows sound pretty tiresome. I currently watch SBS2 a lot but probably won’t be after this starts.

  5. I am sure I am not the demographic they are aiming for (late 50’s, married), but …..yawn.

    Also isn’t the audience they are aiming for rarely watching FTA TV these days????

    ….and the A-League still languishes on SBS2. Sport needs HD people!!!! I only have a casual interest in the A-League, but I used to record and watch the Friday night game every week when it was HD (even though it was rubbish HD)…haven’t bothered since it moved to SBS2.

  6. None of this viceland programming is of interest to me. I don’t know what they are thinking with this kind of programming. What I do wonder about is what is going to happen to the final season of orphan black and the next season of unreal which have been airing on sbs 2? I don’t like it when I commit to a show and don’t know what’s going to happen to it for future seasons. Unfortunately we get this nonsense from commerical free to air but I expect better from sbs.

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