Vice sales €138m in Europe
December 15, 2015
Vice’s European operations will double revenues to £100 million (€138m) this year, as its TV strategy starts to pay off.
Vice UK, the London-based parent for all the company’s European operations, will also deliver its first significant profits of about £18 million this year, according to The Guardian.
The company, which has investors including Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, WPP and Walt Disney, made a small loss of about £1m last year and reported a £3 million profit in 2013.
In 2014, revenues surged 30 per cent from £38 mililion to £49.7 million. The UK accounted for 43 per cent of total European turnover last year. “The group invested substantially during the year [2014] into producing more original [TV and video] content and hiring new staff, particularly in Vice News and in linear TV,” the company said. Significant investment has gone into creating programming with TV shows airing in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Denmark.
The company has also massively increased its staff – employee numbers rose 32% from 473 to 624 last year – to keep pace with growth as Vice plans to launch a dozen linear TV channels across Europe next year.
Vice is to launch a cable TV network, Viceland, in the US next year and is currently in “fast and furious” talks with UK and European partners to launch channels in the next 12 to 18 months.
Earlier this week, Walt Disney doubled its stake in parent Vice Media in a $200m (£131.8m) deal to take its stake to 10% in a deal that values the group at $4bn.