VICE makes 80% of its revenue online.

In a Business Insider article about VICE’s deal with Time Warner, Aaron Taube wrote:

But the company has spent the past decade building a robust advertising and licensing machine, the strength of which lies in a prescient early bet on the viability of online video and a creative approach to monetizing its content.

VICE has been smart with how they have managed their content. They were one of the first content producers to delve into the world of online video. Having become frustrated with the time it took to produce and distribute DVDs, VICE entered into a deal with Viacom to start producing streaming content online. This website was VBS and it rapidly grew the VICE’s brand, getting their unique journalistic style out to a much larger audience.

Due to the growing desire for original TV shows, VICE has been able to make huge amounts of money by simply licencing it’s already produced content to different broadcasters and media companies around the world. Occasionally building or re appropriating content for the specific geographic audience. This is an easy way to create a lot of money, Shane Smith has said it is the primary reason why VICE has made more in Q1 of 2014 compared to the whole of 2013.

VICE are able to offer brands a dynamic range of advertising opportunities. According to their media kit, the VICE target audience is generally affluent young males. Brands such as Go Pro, Red Bull and The North Face are always looking to get involved with these videos. Whether it is just a sponsorship to have their brand feature at the start and end of the video, or a more in depth approach; VICE offer a premium advertising spot on their online content.

They also carry banner and pre roll content on their site which can help bring in revenue from further companies.

According to an article in The New Yorker, brands can sponsor episodes or whole series of VICE shows for between $1 – $5 Million:

Besides selling banner displays and short ads that play before its videos, Vice offers its advertisers the option of funding an entire project in exchange for being listed as co-creator and having editorial input. Advertisers can pay for a single video, or, for a higher price—one to five million dollars for twelve episodes, according to Vice—they can pay for an entire series, on a topic that dovetails with the company’s image. (The North Face, the outdoors company, recently sponsored a series called “Far Out,” in which Vice staffers visit people living in “the most remote places on Earth.”)

VICE has built a media empire based on the early uptake of online video. They have a reputation for creating edgy and high quality content that other companies such as BuzzFeed and The New York Times are struggling to compare with. Through advertising and sponsorship across almost all their content, they have been able to make huge amounts of revenue, which they keep reinvesting to expand the company.