Vice Media pushes into eastern Europe with Antenna Group

Vice Media has teamed up with Greece’s Antenna Group to expand further in central and eastern Europe, rolling out operations in Russia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia and Croatia. The move follows the pair’s existing collaboration in Greece, Serbia and Romania.

Vice will launch new editorial and production operations to create and distribute its programming across the new territories.

Vice initially teamed up with Antenna Group in 2014 to launch Vice Greece, creating local news, culture and lifestyle programming, for broadcast on linear TV and online. Vice now produces a daily TV show and has also produced eight 45-minute special programmes for Antenna. The pair launched a similar venture in November 2014 in Serbia.

Vice’s content has now aired on four of Antenna’s TV channels – Antenna TV in Greece, Prva TV and B92 in Serbia and Prva TV in Montenegro.

Vice said that the pair’s joint projects had achieved a multi-platform reach among 18-34 year-olds of 29% in Greece, 42% in Serbia and over 50% in Romania. Antenna has aired 175 hours of Vice content on free TV channels in the territories in which they pair are working together.

“Vice has found an incredible market in eastern Europe. Why? Because young people there want the kind of content that matters to them – whether it’s news or lifestyle or documentary – framed in the way they see the world. And very few outlets are offering it to them. Antenna Group is the perfect partner to work with because they’re experts on the nuances of the local media landscape, and they completely get what we do here at Vice,” said Shane Smith, co-founder and CEO of Vice.

Theodore Kyriakou, shareholder and chief executive of Antenna Group, said: Our partnership with Vice is a real success, this media company has a unique appeal and acts like a magnet in attracting young audiences. We bring complementary strengths and have built large audiences quickly. Through our Amplifier unit, we provide a one stop shop for digital companies that want to expand into eastern Europe and scale up quickly and successfully.”