Carlton Food Network

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This article is about the defunct. For the US channel with a similar name, see Food Network.
Carlton Food Network
Carlton Food Network 1999.jpg
Ownership
OwnerCarlton Television
(Carlton Communications)
Sister channelsCarlton Select
Carlton Cinema
Carlton Kids
Carlton World
History
Launched1 September 1996; 25 years ago (1996-09-01)
Closed1 December 2001; 20 years ago (2001-12-01)
Availability
(at time of closure)
Terrestrial
ITV DigitalChannel 35

Carlton Food Network (later known as Taste CFN from May 2001) was a British pay television digital terrestrial channel, owned by Carlton Television. It launched at midday on 1 September 1996, and closed on 1 December 2001. It was part of a group of non-terrestrial channels operated by Carlton, which also included Carlton Select – with whom Carlton Food Network time-shared space with – Carlton World, Carlton Kids, and Carlton Cinema.

The channel was also available via the PanAmSat's PAS-4 satellite in Europe, the Middle East and Africa on the South African DStv service.

History[]

Carlton Food Network launched on 1 September 1996 on cable. It originally broadcast on weekday afternoons, broadcasting from 12noon until 5pm, and shared space with SelecTV, which was subsequently bought by Carlton and renamed Carlton Select. It began broadcasting on the ONdigital (later ITV Digital) platform at its launch in November 1998, which was part owned by Carlton along with another ITV company Granada, who also operated its own group of Granada branded channels under a partnership with Sky known as Granada Sky Broadcasting. In early 2000, Carlton Select was closed down and its hours on ONdigital were given over to Carlton Food Network resulting in CFN becoming a full-time channel.[1] However the channel remained a daytime only service on cable with Carlton Cinema airing during the evenings in place of Carlton Select.

The Taste era[]

Taste CFN logo, used from May until December 2001.

In September 2000, Carlton announced it had a signed a joint venture with the supermarket chain Sainsbury's to co-brand the channel. The deal saw the announcement of interactive services for digital TV viewers that would allow them to order recipe ingredients from Sainsbury's through their set-top box. The rebranding took place the following May, with the channel becoming Taste CFN and the launch of the taste.co.uk website, merging Carlton's SimplyFood and Sainsbury's tasteforlife websites. The channel was now promoted by Sainsbury's both in-store and on its website.[2]

However the partnership was brief and it was announced in August 2001 that the venture was to be disbanded on 1 September. Less than expected revenues from e-commerce and a weakened advertising market were blamed on the decision to close the venture, which saw the return of ownership of the Taste CFN channel back to Carlton and the return of the web-based recipe and wine assets to Sainsbury's, with the taste.co.uk website being shut down and its assets being reused by Sainsbury's own websites.[3][4]

Although Carlton were returned ownership of Taste CFN as part of the venture disbanding, Carlton decided to close the channel and it ceased broadcasting on 1 December. On ITV Digital, it was anticipated that the slot was to be filled by a new channel on the now struggling platform, but in the end the space became a preview channel for ITV Digital suppliers and potential customers.

Post closure[]

Less than a month before the closure of the channel, a new food and cookery channel from the UKTV network began broadcasting, UK Food, a spin-off channel from UK Style. Later known as the Good Food Channel before closedown, the channel has been known to broadcast former CFN programming, including original programming that was made for CFN such as Use Your Loaf, co-hosted by James Martin and Paul Hollywood.[5][6] Good Food closed on 11 September 2019 due to Discovery taking control of the channel and deciding to merge it with the Food Network.

Programming[]

The channel broadcast food and cookery programmes and showcased the best of Carlton and other ITV cookery programmes. It also broadcast a weekday food magazine show called Food Network Daily, which was shown several times each day.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Discovery channels boost ONdigital". The Independent. 22 December 1999.
  2. ^ "Sainsbury's to front digital TV". MediaWeek. 28 September 2000. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
  3. ^ "Sainsbury's and Carlton disband Taste". Brand Republic. 10 August 2001. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
  4. ^ "Carlton and Sainsbury's scrap the Taste Network". PRWeek. 15 August 2001. Archived from the original on 30 July 2013. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
  5. ^ "Carlton Food Network to serve up trio of shows". Broadcast. 24 March 2000. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
  6. ^ "Use Your Loaf on Good Food Channel". UKTV. Retrieved 30 July 2013.

External links[]

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