Vice Media debuts in Indonesia

INDONESIA - Vice Media has announced its entry into Indonesia, with a full-scale operation based in Jakarta producing local content and creative agency services to reach the market’s young population of more than 100 million people.

It has also announced multi-platform partnerships with Jawa Pos TV and Google that will bring linear and digital programming to the country. Content will be available in both English and Indonesian.

The launch expands the media company’s presence in the region, with existing operations in Japan, China and South Korea. Partnerships with DOCOMO Digital and AbemaTV have also brought original Vice content to mobile and digital platforms across Japan.

Through the partnership with Jawa Pos TV, Vice News Tonight, the company’s recently launched daily news show on HBO, will air every night on the news television network in a primetime slot. Jawa Pos TV significantly expanded its reach earlier this year, and with infrastructure and other upgrades underway, will soon reach over 150 million people in Indonesia.

The company also launched branded Viceland blocks last month, which will eventually become 24-hour Viceland channels, in 18 Southeast Asian territories, including Indonesia, through a partnership with MultiChannels Asia.

Mo Morris, managing director of Vice Indonesia described the country as “a great fit” for the media brand, a “beautiful, turbulent, and progressive” country with an engaged young audience hungry for a media company that speaks their own language.

“By partnering with Jawa Pos TV and Google, we will be able to meet young people on whichever screen they are consuming content,” he added.

Along with its launch partner Google, Vice will create digital content such as its Searchlight programme which will showcase youth culture and nightlife across Indonesia to a global digital audience.

Through a series of videos, stories and social events, Searchlight will take viewers into unknown stories of Indonesian urban life, and expand VICE’s presence into Indonesia’s digital market.

In the coming months, the media brand will be launching full-scale offices in India and the Middle East, in line with it’s wider global expansion ambitions.

In June, Vice unveiled international deals that, within the next year, will make its multi-screen programming available to audiences in over 50 new territories in Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, the Middle East and India. In total, its multi-platform programming will be available in over 80 territories.