VICE Sets Up in Indonesia

MACAU: VICE Media is setting up a full-scale operation in Indonesia and has announced a pact with Jawa Pos TV that brings its daily HBO news show to the country.

The 18-to-34 segment makes up about 50 percent of Indonesia’s 100-million population, and mobile penetration is rapidly reshaping consumer habits. Based in Jakarta, VICE Indonesia will create and distribute local and international programming across the verticals of culture, food, music, technology, sports and more. The news network Jawa Pos TV will air VICE’s HBO show VICE News Tonight in prime time. Select VICELAND programming will also air on the network during prime time.

In Asia, VICE already has operations in Japan, China and South Korea, and branded VICELAND blocks are on air in 18 Southeast Asian markets. Partnerships with DOCOMO Digital and AbemaTV have also brought original VICE content to mobile and digital platforms across Japan. In the coming months, VICE will launch full-scale offices in India and the Middle East.

“With Indonesia’s massive young audience increasingly consuming video content across all screens, launching VICE here is a no brainer,” said VICE’s co-president, James Schwab. “Combining our award-winning global content with content produced locally in Indonesia, both digitally and on TV through partnerships with Jawa Pos TV, Google and MultiChannels Asia, enables us to reach as many young people as possible, whenever and wherever they are consuming content.”

“It’s been a truly life-changing experience to bring VICE to Indonesia, a country I love and call home,” said Mo Morris, managing director of VICE Indonesia. “We will aim to produce some of the most unique content Southeast Asia has ever seen. Indonesia is a great fit for VICE, 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.”

“Indonesia is the perfect environment for VICE,” said Ardyan M. Erlangga, managing editor of VICE Indonesia. “The country is a diverse, complicated, and incredibly exciting place that is full of under-covered stories, unique characters, and young people hungry for compelling content. We will bring these stories to life with the best young talent locally, telling some of the world’s most important stories to the rest of the region and world.”

Maesa Samola, CEO of Jawa Pos, noted, “I am constantly fascinated by the VICE point of view and unique stand in the media world, and thrilled that VICE’s content is now available to experience through our very own Jawa Pos TV.”