Food Network to launch app that streams interactive cooking classes
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Food Network is launching a paid subscription service that will offer live, interactive cooking classes with star chefs like Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray and Giada De Laurentis.
The new streaming-video app, called Food Network Kitchen, also will enable viewers to order ingredients for recipes and cooking utensils through a partnership with Amazon.
Launching in late October, the service will cost $47.99 a year, and will include over 80,000 recipes, 800 on-demand classes, as well as 25 live classes a week, which will be filmed in Food Network’s test kitchen in Chelsea Market in New York.
“There’s something special about taking a class live,” said Peter Faricy, the head of direct-to-consumer at Food Network’s parent Discovery. “You can ask questions during the class. Someone may ask Bobby Flay: ‘How much salt do we need in this?’ It’s about as authentic experience as you can get.”
It’s the latest offering from Discovery, which is looking to stand out among a slew of media giants that are launching subscription-based streaming services in the coming year to compete against Netflix.
“There are eight players fighting over who is going to be the king of the scripted series,” Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav told The Post, ticking off giants like Disney, Apple, WarnerMedia and NBCUniversal.
“The truth is, that pie of entertainment is one pie and they are fighting over who gets that piece.”
Food Network’s new app, meanwhile, “is unlike any other media app that exists,” Zaslav said. “It’s about creating content that people can use and transact with.”
Zaslav said he and his top lieutenants took inspiration from Peloton, the indoor exercise bike that allows users to take live at-home classes virtually with other Peloton users.
Zaslav tapped Faricy, a former Amazon Marketplace vice president, and Faricy, in turn, approached his former colleagues at Amazon to partner on the project.
The three-year deal with Amazon includes placements on Amazon Fire Tablets, Amazon Alexa and Echo Show, as well as Fire TV streaming media devices and Fire TV Edition smart TVs.
Users will also have the ability to order ingredients from Amazon Fresh and other retailers. Down the road, Food Network Kitchen will partner with retailers including Amazon to sell cooking utensils used in its classes.