Vice Media remains intent on creating its own U.S. cable programming network and is set to take over an existing channel by the end of the year, according to Bloomberg.
The news service said the edgy documentary programmer has narrowed its list of network takeover targets to two.
Last year, Vice secured $250 million from A+E Networks. Speculation at that time was that the cable network conglomerate would let Vice take over one of its channels.
Speaking at an industry event in Los Angeles Monday, A+E CEO Nancy Dubuc said her company was looking for "strategic ways to partner" with Vice, but she said there was no specific announcement to be made at this time.
Comcast's NBCUniversal unit has also kicked the tires on Vice, as it looks for ways to develop digital programming inroads to millennial-aged viewers.
Vice gained momentum creating digital content, but has successfully branched out as a program supplier for cable platforms like HBO, for which its non-fiction programming has won Emmys and audience share.
The cable play has left New York-based Vice wanting to expand from the millennial-rich but ad-poor waters of online media to the older audiences -- and much richer CPMs -- of cable. And it appears to want its own channel to do that.
Vice -- which produces 100 hours of video programming each month -- already has a deal with Canada's Rogers Communications to establish this kind of branding in the Great White North.
For more:
- read this Bloomberg story
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