Some of the network's launch programs were hosted by existing Vice personalities such as Action Bronson and Thomas Morton, as well as notable figures such as Eddie Huang, Elliot Page, and Lance Bangs.

[4][5][6] On August 29, 2014, A&E Networks—a joint venture of Hearst Corporation and The Walt Disney Company—acquired a 10% minority stake in Vice Media for $250 million.

[7] On October 30, 2014, Vice announced a CDN$100 million joint venture with Canadian media conglomerate Rogers Communications, to build a studio in Toronto's Liberty Village neighborhood for producing original content.

Rogers CEO Guy Laurence described the proposed studio as "a powerhouse for Canadian digital content focused on 18- to 34-year-olds" which would be "exciting" and "provocative".

[11] The Vice company had previously moved from Montreal to New York City due to difficulties in reaching a sufficient scale in Canada at the time.

[8][13] Creative director Spike Jonze stated that his goal for Viceland was to make its lineup have "a reason to exist and a strong point of view", rather than be just a "collection of shows".

Jonze explained that Viceland would continue to reflect Vice's core mission of "trying to understand the world we live in by producing pieces about things we're curious about or confused about or that we think are funny.

[13][15] The Walt Disney Company, who co-owns A&E Networks with Hearst Corporation, made a second 10% investment of $200 million in Vice Media to support the production of new programming.

[15] Prior to its North American launch, Vice ran newspaper ads for Viceland, containing only the network's name and a phone number that, when called, invited viewers to contribute answers to questions.

ET in the United States, broadcasting a countdown clock to the official launch later in the evening, accompanied by footage of Vice executives answering the viewer-contributed calls as voice mail.

[31] Vice holds a 49% minority stake and control of international expansions,[13] except in Australia; where the channel is wholly-owned and operated by the SBS.

The American version is operated by a joint venture with A&E Networks, (itself a stake owner of Vice Media) and originally replaced H2.

A month after its initial launch, the U.S. version of the network announced a second slate of shows, including Traveling the Stars: Action Bronson and Friends Watch 'Ancient Aliens'—a series in which Action Bronson watches episodes of Ancient Aliens with guests whilst smoking marijuana,[32] Black Market— a series in which Michael K. Williams explores underground economies around the world, the U.S. premieres of Cyberwar and Dead Set on Life,[33] Party Legends— a show about re-enactments of entertaining party stories,[34] WOMAN— a series in which Gloria Steinam features the lives of different women around the world,[35] and VICE Does America— which Abdullah Saeed and two Vice co-workers explore forgotten places of the world.

[38][39] That month, Viceland also premiered Dark Side of the Ring, a documentary series on controversial events in professional wrestling.

[54] Viceland started broadcasting in the Netherlands and Flanders on March 1, 2017, initially exclusively to the cable-operator Ziggo, owned by VodafoneZiggo.

[56] Only on July 18, 2018, Viceland managed to obtain distribution with KPN, a national provider and competitor to Ziggo, resulting in nationwide availability.

In Belgium, Viceland Vlaanderen started with Telenet, the Flemish cableprovider majority owned by Liberty Global on March 1, 2017.