Pursuits
With Shows Like ‘Weediquette,’ Vice Tries to Make Cable Cool
- Media company's valuation more than doubled since HBO debut
- Vice traded 9 percent stake for 49.9 percent of H2 network
Spike Jonze, creative director of Viceland.
Photographer: Jerod Harris /Getty Images for A+E NetworksThis article is for subscribers only.
Nine years after Viacom Inc. gave him the money to create an online TV network, Vice Media Inc.Chief Executive Officer Shane Smith is trying to turn it into the next MTV.
On Monday, Smith flipped the switch on Viceland, a cable network formerly known as H2 that is co-owned and programmed by the New York-based media company. The network will air programs with names like “Weediquette” and “Gaycation” that burnish Vice’s reputation for brash, blunt cultural commentary.