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Vice Programs Will Stay on Hulu as Brands Renew Licensing Deal (EXCLUSIVE)

Vice programs will remain on streaming service Hulu in the U.S. after Vice Distribution, the global distribution arm of the youth-skewing media brand, renewed its licensing partnership with the Disney-backed SVOD.

The deal covers more than 130 hours of Vice programming, and continues a partnership struck in 2019, when Vice shows first landed on Hulu. The companies then struck a more formal pact last year, for 100 hours of Vice TV originals. They also previously partnered on the launch of Vice on Hulu’s live streaming service.

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The new deal sees the renewal of most titles that are already available on Hulu, along with 50 hours of new programming that are being added to the platform.

Vice smartly expanded into distribution in July 2020 with a new global distribution and licensing group, headed by former ITV Studios executive Bea Hegedus. The outfit is intended to maximize the value of Vice IP, including programming from Vice TV. The business sits under Vice Studios.

The selection of programming from Vice TV heading to Hulu is comprised of true crime, factual documentary, entertainment and lifestyle, and produced by in-house production outfit Vice Studios, as well as 44 Blue Productions, Railsplitter Pictures, Insight Productions, Citizen Skull and Rock Salt Releasing. New shows include “Dark Side of Football,” “Dark Side of the 90s” and one-off documentary “Vice Versa: Chyna” (pictured), as well as the most recent seasons of “Dark Side of the Ring” and “Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia.”

Hegedus, global head of distribution for Vice Media Group, said: “We are delighted to expand our partnership with Hulu, who share our passion for impactful, premium factual programming. We look forward to bringing our newest hit titles to Hulu while continuing to offer our popular library titles, as we see audience demand increase for Vice content around the world.”

Vice Distribution, which is now one year old, has a catalogue of over 1,000 hours of programming from across Vice Media Group. The fledgling outfit recently launched a FAST channel on the Roku Channel and Samsung TV Plus, and have partnerships with Discovery Plus, Pluto TV, Roku, All 4 and SBS Australia. Content deals are also in place with Bell Media in Canada and AMC International in Iberia.

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