Already a multi-tentacled juggernaut with thriving ventures in music, magazines, publishing, film production, and advertising, Vice is poised to add another feather to it's 10 gallon hat of cool.

VBS.TV is the controversial empire's new broadband content site. Still so new that the splash page is going live "later today," VBS has started building buzz thanks to "Soft Focus", a talk-show program hosted by Ian Svenonius, a style icon and singer for seminal bands Nation Of Ulysses, Make-Up, and Weird War, which is being filmed live in front of an invitation-only studio audience at the Guggenheim Museum. The first episode, taped last Friday featured fellow DC punk legends Ian Mackaye and Henry Rollins discussing their music with Svenonius. Upcoming episodes promise to feature similarly dynamic lineups, including guests like Will Oldham and Chan Marshall.

Little else is available out there in terms of what other content is in the pipeline for VBS. What is known, however, is that Spike Jonze is serving as creative director. Suffice to say from that piece of information and by checking out the trailer that viewers can expect the same infuriating mix of low brow humor and social commentary that has become Vice's stock-in-trade as well as loads of infectious music video and animation.

Additionally, there will be some content sharing happening between VBS and Vice's DVD series. Ultimately, however, they are shooting for several hours of live content each day to complement taped segments and bits submitted from stringers around the globe.

Clearly these guys are doing something right, despite the hipster backlash which appears underway in major metropolitan areas. In the past several years, they gone from a Canadian curiosity relocated to NYC to a global behemoth boasting thirteen international editions. If nothing else, that means that they have a lot of proven lunatics in their rolodex to help throw together bits like the segments on PLO Boyscouts and Russia's answer to Ibiza clubbing excess from the online teaser.

Whether or not the advertisers which continue to flock to Vice's print editions will support the new network is an open question. At present there isn't even a media kit for potential partners. Everything is being handled on an ad hoc "bespoke" basis, working from a brand integration strategy which forgoes traditional ad units in favor of original programming indistinguishable on many levels from the other fare already programmed on VBS. Pretty crafty!

It appears you don't have Flash installed.