Vice News is launching a weekly half-hour talk show — “On the Line,” to be streamed live on YouTube each Thursday — and the media company has cut a deal with Samsung to provide on-demand replays on the consumer-electronics maker’s Milk Video service exclusively for a 72-hour window.
“On the Line,” the news organization’s first live series, will broadcast at 12 noon ET on Vice News’ YouTube channel with a revolving group of hosts. In the first episode, airing Feb. 19, Vice News correspondent Henry Langston will discuss his documentary “The Battle for Iraq: Shia Militias vs. the Islamic State.”
Via Skype, the show will feature Vice News viewers directly in the broadcast. After the livestream ends, “On the Line” will be edited down to a 4-5 minute clip — which will be available exclusively to users of Samsung Galaxy tablets and smartphones, on the CE company’s Milk Video service, for three days. After that, the VOD asset will be released widely on YouTube and other platforms.
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Vice News has livestreamed news coverage in the past, including police-brutality protests in Ferguson, Mo., but this is the first scheduled live show.
Samsung last November launched the Milk Video shortform mobile service available exclusively for Galaxy devices owners, an effort to differentiate its products from Apple and other rivals. The consumer-electronics maker’s Milk Video service, initially available only in the U.S., includes top-trending clips and content from partners including Condé Nast Entertainment, Disney’s Maker Studios, Funny or Die, Red Bull, Vevo, Vice, BuzzFeed, AwesomenessTV and NBCUniversal’s Fandango.
Milk Video now offers 68 channels, including recent additions “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “Saturday Night Live,” Mashable, Reuters, Fox Sports, the NBA, StyleHaul and YouTube star Shane Dawson.
In addition to its exclusive deals with Vice and others including Cracked.com and DanceOn, Samsung on Thursday is launching four exclusive videos from Universal Music Group on Milk Video. Those are pre-Grammys performances by Sam Smith (“Stay With Me”), Fall Out Boy (“Centuries”), the Weeknd (“Earned It”) and Shawn Mendes (“Life of the Party”).
The video service is free to Samsung users, who can share clips via social networks and email to their friends. Samsung’s return on investing in content will “play out over time,” said Kevin Swint, VP of content and services at Samsung’s Media Solutions Center America division. But, he added, usage of Milk Video “maps pretty clearly back to customer satisfaction.”
Samsung isn’t disclosing metrics about Milk Video usage, but Swint said that “we’ve been super-happy with the uptake… people are diving into a handful of videos rather than just one or two as you would expect on a viral-video service.”
Milk Video also will be coming to Samsung’s 2015 line of HDTVs, which are set to ship at the end of Q1 or early Q2. “That’s a key piece of making the service widely available,” Swint said.
