Discovery Teams With Amazon On Food Network Subscription Streaming Offering

Dade Hayes

Click here to read the full article.

Discovery, whose approach to streaming in the U.S. has favored participation in bundled offerings over direct-to-consumer fare, is taking a different tack with the launch of Food Network Kitchen in partnership with Amazon.

Billing it as a “first-of-its-kind” service to launch in late October, Discovery said it will offer 25 live, weekly, interactive cooking classes every week and five a day on weekends. Supplementing that will be 800 on-demand classes, 3,000 instructional videos and grocery and equipment delivery. The video programming will feature recognizable talent and a range of Michelin-star and James Beard Award-winning chefs, the company said.

More from Deadline

Food Network Kitchen will be $7 a month or $60 a year, with a 90-day free trial and $48 annual subscription offered for a limited time after the launch. A limited selection of videos and recipes will be offered for free.

Amazon will offer Food Network Kitchen through its Alexa and Echo Show devices, as well as Fire tablets, streaming devices and smart TVs. It will also be on iOS and Android mobile devices at launch, with additional platforms and devices coming online in 2020.

Discovery CEO David Zaslav described the new initiative as creating the “richest culinary media ecosystem in the world” and said the companies are building the “Peloton of food.” He added, “Through Food Network Kitchen’s proprietary streaming technology and our foundational partnership with Amazon, we believe this is a truly differentiated product that will make customers’ lives better.”

Peter Faricy, a former Amazon exec who was recruited last year to run Discovery’s direct-to-consumer efforts, said the new service is a response to customer demand. “We have designed a product that will change the way people cook by giving them direct access to their favorite chefs, the convenience of expert instruction and the skills they need to be more confident in the kitchen,” he said. “We are bringing inspiration and joy to cooking.”

Discovery recently rolled out a streaming partnership with the PGA and Tiger Woods that includes rights to golf tournaments outside the U.S. as well as exclusive instructional content from Woods. Other recent efforts have centered on cycling and a more general offering in Europe via the company’s Eurosport subsidiary.

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.