VBS.tv is an online television network owned by the Vice

Vice (magazine)

VICE is a free magazine and media conglomerate founded in Montreal, Quebec and currently based in New York City.Vice is available in 27 countries...

media conglomerate. The network produces original, short-form, documentary

Documentary

A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...

-style video content. Subject matter includes humanitarian issues, music, insider travel guides, and news. The creative director of the network is Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television...

.

Formation

VBS began as a deal between Viacom

Viacom

Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...

-owned MTV Networks

MTV Networks

MTV Networks is a division of media conglomerate Viacom that oversees the operations of many television channels and Internet brands, including the original MTV channel in the United States...

 and Logo Group. In March 2007, the network was formed; MTV funded the formation of the network, and Vice magazine would supply the content. MTV has rights to distribute VBS content across its worldwide network of channels. According to Vice co-founder Suroosh Alvi

Suroosh Alvi

Suroosh Alvi is a Pakistani Canadian journalist and film-maker who was among the co-founders of Montreal-based Vice magazine alongside Shane Smith and Gavin McInnes in 1994. As well as being a media critic, Alvi has also worked on creating documentaries about places deemed dangerous in the Middle...

, "traditional journalism always aspires to objectivity, and since day one with the magazine we never believed in that...Our ethos is subjectivity with real substantiation. I don't think you see that on CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

."

Circulation

VBS videos are available via the network's website, as well as being broadcast on MTV Latin America

MTV Latin America

MTV Latin America is a cable television specialty service aimed at residents in Hispanic American countries. It was launched on October 1, 1993 as MTV en Español. The channel is a Hispanic American version from MTV...

 and MTV2

MTV2

MTV2 is a cable network that is widely available in the United States on digital cable and satellite television, and is progressively being added to analogue cable lineups across the nation...

. VBS is currently featured as a weekly show on MTV2. Online circulation reached over 2.5 million hits in 2008. Recently, VBS.tv content has appeared in CNN as part of their CNN presents lineup, with CNN stating that "... We believe this unique reporting approach is worthy of sharing with our CNN.com readers."

Content

The network's videos feature reporting on popular culture, travel, extreme sports, and music. The site has also produced special-interest and current affairs-based shows such as an interview with Hezbollah's self-proclaimed mayor of Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

 and a show that explored allegations of environmental abuse. It has also approached drug issues, producing a documentary about the criminal use of the drug scopolamine

Scopolamine

Scopolamine, also known as levo-duboisine, and hyoscine, is a tropane alkaloid drug with muscarinic antagonist effects. It is among the secondary metabolites of plants from Solanaceae family of plants, such as henbane, jimson weed and Angel's Trumpets , and corkwood...

 in Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

. Other coverage includes a series of short documentaries about Darfur

Darfur

Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...

, Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

, Liberia

Liberia

Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...

, and North Korea

North Korea

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...

.

The network also produced Heavy Metal in Baghdad

Heavy Metal in Baghdad

Heavy Metal in Baghdad is a critically acclaimed 2007 rockumentary film following filmmakers Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi as they track down the Iraqi heavy metal band Acrassicauda amidst the Iraq War.-Synopsis:...

, a feature length documentary film about Acrassicauda

Acrassicauda

Acrassicauda is an Iraqi thrash metal band formed in 2001. It is often credited as being the first heavy metal group to emerge from Iraq. The band consists of three Arab members and one Assyrian . The band formed and played concerts under the regime of Saddam Hussein...

.