Participant Media said Monday it’s planning to launch a new cable network next summer aimed at millennials by rebranding The Documentary Channel, which it just acquired.

Combined with the distribution assets of 

Halogen TV, also just purchased from The Inspiration Network, the new channel will reach an estimated 40-plus million subscribers. It will be run by Evan Shapiro, former prexy of IFC and the Sundance Channel, who joined Participant last May.

Financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

Participant is the studio behind  “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Food, Inc.,” “The Help,” Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” and the upcoming “Promised Land.”

“The goal of Participant is to tell stories that serve as catalysts for social change. With our television channel, we can bring those stories into the homes of our viewers every day,” said chairman and founder Jeff Skoll.

Shapiro said the content will be specifically designed for the viewers that the pay TV eco-system is most at risk of losing – viewers between 18 and 34. “We all know that millennials are changing how media is consumed. However, they also have the strong desire and inimitable capacity to help change the world. Our research shows that there is a white space in the television landscape and we believe that a destination for ‘the next greatest generation’ will be a win for our affiliate partners, advertisers and the creative community.”

The channel is working on content with

producer Brian Graden, The Jim Henson Company’s Brian Henson, director Davis Guggenheim, columnist and blogger Meghan McCain, humorist Morgan Spurlock, documentary filmmaker Gotham Chopra, filmmaker and screenwriter Mary Harron, writer/director Timothy Scott Bogart, and Cineflix Media, a leading international TV producer and distributor in which Participant Media controls an equity interest.