Vice Media Launches Sports Arm; 50-Plus Hours Of Programming Includes Series On Top College Basketball Coaches Rick Pitino & John Calipari; Omaha Productions Among Initial Partners

EXCLUSIVE: Vice Media has launched a sports division, lining up more than 50 hours of programming and also shifting its Vice TV cable network to a sports-first approach.

Vice Sports will look to capitalize on still-healthy viewer appetite for sports fare, but the initiative does not signal an intent as of now to go after any top-tier live rights.

As part of the strategic shift, Vice TV will co-produce and air seven original sports series early next year, with prime-time programming blocks carrying the Vice Sports brand. The company will produce more than 50 hours of sports-themed docuseries, programs, events, and podcasts for global distributors across television and digital. Among the initial partners with Vice is Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions.

Anchoring the network’s sports slate are the original series Pitino: Red Storm Rising and Calipari: Razor’s Edge, which center on two prominent and controversial college basketball coaches. Vice TV will also air The Verdict and four original series from Vice Studios – Dark Side of the Cage; The Grudge; Sports Gone Wrong; and the highly anticipated sixth season of Vice TV signature franchise Dark Side of the Ring.

Pitino: Red Storm Rising follows the coach of the St. John’s University Red Storm (and formerly Kentucky, Louisville and the NBA’s New York Knicks and Boston Celtics). As the series shows Pitino trying to help the team end its Big East title drought and earn a trip to the NCAA Tournament, it also looks back at Pitino’s career. Calipari: Razor’s Edge, produced with Omaha Productions, is billed as an “intimate, all-access look” at Coach John Calipari’s first season as head coach of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks, and the winding road that took him there after notable stops at UMass, Kentucky, Memphis and the NBA’s New Jersey Nets.

Both new series will premiere in February during the lead-up to March Madness.

Vice recently emerged from bankruptcy protection as a leaner and more focused operation. Its days of commanding a multi-billion-dollar valuation and investments from Disney, Fox and Time Warner are behind it, but the company’s studio business in particular is showing many positive signs. Vice TV, a joint venture with A+E Networks, is widely distributed and the company retained advertising agency Virtue. The agency was a key revenue driver for the earlier, Shane Smith-led iteration of Vice and is due to come into play with the sports effort. Sources indicated to Deadline that a number of branded content projects are being seeded in connection with various titles in the sports pipeline.

Along with Vice TV’s original sports series, the network will acquire and air 100 hours of additional sports programming, ranging from events to podcast. That slate includes Nightcap with Shannon Sharpe and Ochocinco: Recap, The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis: Recap, American Ninja Warrior, PDC World Championship Darts, Arena Football One, and docuseries and live event recaps from Red Bull.

Hailing Vice Media’s longtime signature of “authentic, differentiated, and compelling content,” CEO Bruce
Dixon said the sports launch would provide a valuable new way to connect with audiences. “Given the demand for sports content around the world is greater than ever before, we are well-positioned to offer an alternative to the mainstream, airing not only on our own Vice TV network but across other media platforms,” he said.

With Dark Side of The Ring having set the tone, “now is the time to double-down and shift to a sports-focused programming model,” Vice TV President Pete Gaffney said. “We have several exciting new shows that we are co-producing alongside some of the biggest names in sports who will partner with us to fuel the Vice Sports brand.”

Peyton Manning said the team at Omaha Productions is “excited” to be working with Vice on Calipari: Razor’s Edge. “We expect this series to be the first of many future collaborations between Omaha and Vice as the company expands into more sports content.”

Sports and sports-adjacent topics have always been key ingredients in the overall Vice recipe. The company’s independence and edgy brand has differentiated it from programmers trying to complement live games with docu fare. Many rightsholders surround live coverage with docu titles, which are often engineered merely as promotional vehicles or appeasements to league partners. Along with Dark Side of the Ring, Vice has had a hand in projects like Uninterrupted: The Real Stories of Basketball with LeBron James’ SpringHill Productions; Who Killed WCW with Dwayne Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions; The American Gladiators Documentary and Stolen Gold for ESPN; and Max Verstappen: Anatomy of a Champion for Viaplay.

Feeding the Vice TV network will be a priority but the company will also continue to make sports-themed shows for third parties.

Danny Gabai, Co-President of Vice Studios, said the company is eager to forge partnerships with “great talent to produce breakthrough sports content as we leverage our brand and history.”