VICE DISTRIBUTION ANNOUNCES FIRST SPRING SLATE

VICE Distribution, the recently formed distribution division of VICE Media Group, reveals frst programming slate for Spring

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For more information, please contact: Maddy Chambers Deputy Communications Director, EMEA [email protected]

LONDON, 17 FEBRUARY 2021 - VICE Distribution, the global distribution division of VICE Media Group, has revealed its frst slate of programming for Spring following the launch of the business last year. The slate features 250 hours of new premium non-scripted content from across VICE Media Group including true crime, investigative documentary, current afairs and politics, as well as pop culture and entertainment.

VICE Distribution launched in Summer 2020 with over 900 hours of documentary, lifestyle and news programming. The new Spring slate comes from producers including VICE Studios, the Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning co-producers of ‘Flee’, VICE World News, the newly-launched content hub from VICE Media Group who produce hundreds of hours of international television, digital and audio news programming for a global audience, and high-end third party producers including Icon Films, 44 Blue Productions, Railsplitter Pictures and Insight Productions.

Bea Hegedus, Global Head of Distribution, VICE Studios, said: ‘Our Spring slate of premium and distinctive factual programming has international appeal and speaks to the issues and subjects which youth audiences truly care about. We look forward to bringing our unique content directly from our award-winning producers, production partners and channels to global audiences.”

The brand new Spring slate features true crime series including ‘Jack the Ripper: Hidden Victims’, a new three-part documentary from VICE Studios for Channel 5 in the UK, which debunks the myths and mistruths around the Jack the Ripper murders. Produced by VICE World News,‘‘Criminal Planet’, which reveals the latest trends in global crime and the increasingly complex, high-tech and wide-reaching challenges faced by law enforcement and will air on VICE TV this year and Point Blank’ is an immersive cultural examination of Asia’s obsession with guns, examining gun culture as a way to gain a deeper understanding of the countries we visit.

VICE Distribution’s premium investigative documentary, politics and current affairs selection includes VICE Studios produced ‘QAnon: The Search for Q’ which chases down the mysterious figure behind the movement known as ‘Q' who has amassed a devoted following of online conspiracy theorists. The series also more than tripled VICE TV's primetime audience and was the best performing content in nearly a year. From Efran Films and narrated by Jeffery Wright (Westworld) comes ‘While The Rest Of Us Die’, unpacking America’s national security spending and plan to suspend democracy in order to serve the interests of the elite class. Produced by VICE World News, ‘Wet Markets Exposed’ goes inside the epidemic of wet markets for exotic wild pets and follows the efforts of the heroic people who are trying to shut them down in order to protect the planet’s biodiversity and ‘Border to Border’ investigates life at the junctions of crime, escalating armed conflict with a lense of local culture.

Pop culture and entertainment titles include a brand new season of VICE Studios highly successful wrestling documentary ‘Dark Side of the Ring’ as well as VICE TV’s recently announced expansion of the franchise with two new series, ‘Dark Side of Football’ and ‘Dark Side of the ‘90s’, which look at the untold stories of American football and the 90’s. From VICE World News comes the 6-part series ‘The Deep End: Fanatics’, which explores the space between interest and obsession in youth culture today and ‘Reset’, which reveals the origins of the global phenomenon of video games, from Millennial nostalgia for Super Mario Brothers and Zelda, and Gen Z’s obsession with Fortnite.

Other productions include the recently announced series from Icon Films, VICE World News and VICE TV, ‘Unknown Amazon with Pedro Andrade’, which explores the real modern-day Amazonia in all its complexity, as well as the third season of the VICE TV original ‘Hamilton's Pharmacopeia’, which follows journalist, documentarian, and scientific researcher Hamilton Morris on an incredible journey as he investigates the history, chemistry and societal impacts of the world's most extraordinary drugs.

VICE Distribution recently announced partnerships with SBS Australia for 700 hours of VICE Media Group content, and with Hulu in the US for over 100 hours of original VICE TV programming. VICE Distribution holds further content partnerships with Bell Media in Canada, AMC International in Iberia and Hulu in Japan.

SPRING SLATE HIGHLIGHTS

True Crime

Criminal Planet 8x60' Produced by VICE World News for VICE TV Criminal Planet is a landmark eight-part series that reveals the latest trends in global crime and the increasingly complex, high-tech and wide-reaching challenges faced by law enforcement. The series explains underlying causes of global crime, hearing from victims, and profiles those on the cutting edge of enforcement who are seeking to break the criminal cycles that hurt our societies.

Jack the Ripper: Hidden Victims 3x60’ Produced by VICE Studios for Channel 5 UK A new three-part documentary debunking the myths and mistruths around the Jack the Ripper murders. Three experts - a historian, a forensic psychologist and a former police detective - will re-examine the five horrific murders through a modern lens, using the stories of the murdered women to give new insight into the tragic events of 1888.

Point Blank 6x60’ Produced by VICE World News Despite strict regulation and red tape, the Asia-Pacific region has some of the highest figures of gun ownership, manufacturing, smuggling, and gun-related deaths in the world. This series is an immersive cultural examination of Asia’s obsession with guns, looking at how guns affect the people who traffic and use them in their everyday lives, examining gun culture as a way to gain a deeper understanding of the countries we visit.

Pop Culture and Entertainment

Dark Side of the Ring S3 14x60’ Produced by VICE Studios in partnership with Bell Media’s Crave for VICE TV The third season continues the rich storytelling that defined seasons one and two and will bring viewers more of the real life drama they crave. Through first-person interviews, rare archival footage and dramatic recreations, Dark Side of the Ring exposes the wild and often criminal elements that dwell in the shadows of professional wrestling.

Dark Side of (American) Football 8x60' Produced by 44 Blue Productions for VICE TV Expanding its record-breaking docuseries 'Dark Side of the Ring' into a franchise, ‘Dark Side of (American) Football’ is a brand new VICE commission which shines a light on stories that live in the shadows of America’s favorite sport.

Dark Side of the ’90s 10x60’ Produced by Railsplitter Pictures and Insight Productions for VICE TV Dark Side of the ’90s will reveal the soul of the decade through its most captivating pop-culture moments, trends and personalities, through interviews with people who studied the time period. Each episode will dissect the nostalgia, uncovering the surprising dark truths underlying the glitz, the glamour and the headlines.

Fanatics: The Deep End 6x30’ Produced by VICE World News for VICE TV Fandom is the new religion. As traditional institutions and belief systems lose power, new cults of personality are born every day; YouTubers, Dictators, Wellness gurus. Alice Hines explores the space between interest and obsession — fandom and fanaticism — and nothing is as it seems. Reset 10x30’ Produced by VICE World News for VICE TV Video games are no longer niche, they’re the biggest media industry in the world. Reset reveals the untold origins of the global phenomenon, exploring the biggest games in history, appealing equally to Millennial nostalgia for Super Mario Brothers and Zelda, and Gen Z’s obsession with Fortnite.

Investigative Documentary, Politics and Current Afairs

Border to Border 10x30’ Produced by VICE World News New diseases, climate change, escalating armed conflict — all are creating unprecedented challenges and transformations. We put boots on the ground to explore what it’s like to live along the lines drawn between countries at a time when they’re both being hardened by nationalism and also rendered obsolete by globalization and the digital revolution.

Fringe Nation 4x60’ Produced by VICE World News for VICE TV Former President Donald Trump vowed to designate the anti-fascist movement “Antifa” a terrorist organization in the wake of some nationwide protests that became violent. Turns out, there is no official federal designation for domestic terrorism organizations, but there are plenty of groups that could easily fit that definition. We deep dive into the groups most cited and seen in this political storm and identified the emerging extremist groups we all need to watch out for.

QAnon: The Search for Q 3x60’ Produced by VICE Studios for VICE TV This series lays out what’s next for the QAnon conspiracy group and chases down the mysterious figure behind the movement known as ‘Q'. Going behind the scenes with the experts, insiders and QAnon faithful as we follow the breadcrumbs to investigate the true identity of Q; from former CIA officer Robert David Steele who is revered in the QAnon movement, to Fredrick Brennan, the creator of the website where Q’s posts first gained notoriety (8chan) who now seeks to expose Q as a fraud, to a former Chicago PD officer turned QAnon influencer, to believers and members of the supposed ‘Deep State’ targeted by Q.

Wet Markets Exposed 4x60’ Produced by VICE World News for VICE TV A groundbreaking limited series that goes inside the epidemic of wet markets and pet markets to shine a light on those working to shut them down and protect the planet's vulnerable citizens and fragile biodiversity. The series features adventurer Forrest Galante from Animal Planet’s “Extinct or Alive”.

While The Rest Of Us Die Produced by Efran Films for VICE TV Narrated by Westworld’s Jeffrey Wright and based on the bestselling book Raven Rock, this series explores the chasm between the powerful and the rest of us by exposing a hidden world inside the United States consisting of an incredible physical and legal network of secret places and procedures that began being constructed during the Cold War and continue to function to this day.

Other

Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia S3 6x60’ A VICE TV Production for VICE TV Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia continues its mission to unravel the mysteries and science of the globe’s most powerful psychedelics and meet the extraordinary minds behind them. Over the course of six hour-long episodes, audiences will follow Hamilton on his wildest journeys yet including visiting meth labs to explore various forms of Methamphetamines and traveling to South America for the world’s oldest psychedelic Bufotenine.

Unknown Amazon with Pedro Andrade 6x60’ Produced by ICON Films, VICE TV and VICE World News for VICE TV A new documentary series that explores the unique diversity of Amazonia and the people who live there. Hosted by Brazilian author and journalist Pedro Andrade, the series will take viewers on an epic journey through the Amazon Basin, to show them the real modern-day Amazonia in all its complexity.

ENDS

ABOUT VICE STUDIOS VICE Studios is a global production and distribution division within VICE Media Group delivering premium original programming across documentary, scripted and flm. With development and production teams in the USA, Canada, UK, Europe, Asia-Pacifc and Latin America, VICE Studios cuts through culture, delivering stories that are popular, human and spotlight the unexpected for audiences around the world.

VICE Studios also houses VICE’s new licensing and distribution group, with a catalogue of over 1000 hours of programming created across the VICE Media Group, across a range of genres from documentary to lifestyle to Vice News.

VICE Studios upcoming original productions include Flee, World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize winner at Sundance 2021, six-part documentary series Pride for FX and Moments Like This Never Last which premiered at DOCNYC. Launched in 2017, VICE Studios productions include Chris Smith's Emmy-nominated Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond and Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened (Netfix); feature flm The Report starring Adam Driver and Annette Bening (Amazon); Diego Osorno's 1994 (Netfix), Dark Side of the Ring (VICE TV), AKA Jane Roe (FX), and Satanic Verses (BBC).

ABOUT VICE WORLD NEWS Building off the success of VICE News in the U.S, VICE World News is a newly-launched content hub from VICE Media Group, producing hundreds of hours of international television, digital and audio news programming for a global audience. The premium documentaries, docu-series and original podcasts will focus on the core issues that so define VICE's content: extremism, climate, drugs, privacy, politics, inequality and race.

ABOUT VICE MEDIA GROUP VICE Media Group is the world’s largest independent youth media company. Launched in 1994, VICE has ofces in 35 cities across the globe with a focus on fve key businesses: VICE.com, an award-winning international network of digital content; VICE STUDIOS, a feature flm and television production studio; VICE TV, an Emmy-winning international television network; a Peabody award-winning NEWS division with the most Emmy-awarded nightly news broadcast; and VIRTUE, a global, full-service creative agency with 25 ofces around the world. VICE Media Group’s portfolio includes Refnery29, the leading global media and entertainment company focused on women; PULSE Films, a London-based next-generation production studio with outposts in Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Berlin; i-D, a global digital and bimonthly magazine defning fashion and contemporary culture; and Garage, a digital platform and biannual publication converging the worlds of art and design.