Food Serves June Banquet

Scripps-Owned Net Loads Up After Cooking Channel Launch

By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 6/7/2010 12:01:00 AM

Food Network in June will serve a different programming dish to consumers, compared to its newly launched sister service Cooking Channel, with an aggressive series slate that features more than seven series premieres, including top hit The Next Food Network Star.

“We really wanted to come out of May sweeps and launch a focused campaign that created some immediacy and excitement around June,” said Food senior vice president of marketing, creative services and public relations Susie Fogelson.

Scripps Networks-owned Food will cook up an unprecedented 85 new episodes during the month of June, from such shows as Diners Drive-In and Dives, Chopped, Good Eats, Dinner: Impossible and City Unwrapped, as well as from competition series Iron Chef America and Food Network Challenge, officials said.

Food launches a new series on June 15, Cupcake Wars, pitting the country’s top cupcake bakers against one another in three elimination challenges for a $10,000 prize.

The centerpiece of this month’s menu is the June 6 premiere of The Next Food Network Star’s sixth season. From a new set in Los Angeles, contestants will vie for a shot at his or her own show on the channel.

The aggressive programming slate doesn’t end in June. August will see another new series, The Great Food Truck Race, in which seven food-truck teams engage in a cross-country competition.

“It’s Amazing Race meets a culinary competition,” Fogelson said.

Food’s June smorgasbord follows the May 31 launch of Scripps Networks’ Cooking Channel, which took over Fine Living Network’s 58 million subscribers. Fogelson said the Cooking launch was a partial catalyst for Food’s ramped-up June lineup, but said the older network won’t be aggressively marketing against the newcomer.

“We’re not spinning our wheels too radically in terms of differentiating ourselves from Cooking Channel — the audience will experience them and find their affection for both brands,” he said. “But this is a smart strategy for us, especially when we know there is more focus on the category because of the Cooking Channel.”

Cooking Channel general manager Michael Smith said audiences won’t have trouble telling the difference between his service and Food Network.

“People are getting the idea that this is a complement to Food Network, not a replacement or a clone,” he said. “It’s a network that helps people take a deeper dive into food and get into some new cuisines and some new aspects of the subject.”

Cooking Channel was able to secure most of Fine Living’s subscribers as part of Food Network carriage renewal deals with operators completed last year, Smith said. Cooking will look to launch several new series over the next few months, starring such culinary TV stars as Emeril Lagasse, Rachel Ray and Iron Chef’s Michael Simon, he added. In July, Cooking will debut a companion recap show to Food’s The Next Food Network Star, with highlights and contestant interviews.

“We look at our debut as a soft launch,” Smith said, with at least 10 to 12 more shows to be added to the culinary-TV feast before the year ends.