Vice Media has signed a joint venture deal with Econet Media to launch Kwese Vice, a multiplatform network to produce and distribute programming for sub-Saharan Africa.
Econet Media owns Pan-African broadcast network Kwese, which targets millennials, the same audience demographic for Vice’s factual and lifestyle programming. Kwese TV already carries Viceland, Vice Media’s flagship cable channel. Vice and Econet will set up offices in South Africa to develop and produce content specifically for the new platform and for third-party platforms.
Kwese Vice will also house Vice’s ad agency Virtue Worldwide, which will focus on developing branded content for ad clients in the African market. The new venture is set to launch in 2018.
The African deal is the latest in Vice’s continued global expansion, which has seen the youth-focused media group launch local collaborations with the likes of Globosat in Brazil, the Moby Group in the Mid-East and the Times of India.
