Food Network (Canada)

Food Network
Country	Canada
Broadcast area	Nationwide
Headquarters	Toronto, Ontario
Programming
Language(s)	English
Picture format	1080i HDTV; (downscaled to letterboxed 480i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
Owner	Food Network Canada Inc. (80.15%, via Corus Entertainment – managing partner); Television Food Network G.P. (19.85%; Warner Bros. Discovery/Nexstar Media Group)
Sister channels	Cooking Channel; DTour; HGTV; Magnolia Network
History
Launched	October 9, 2000; 24 years ago
Former names	Food Network Canada (2000–2005)
Links
Website	foodnetwork.ca
Availability
Streaming media
StackTV	Internet Protocol television
RiverTV	Channel 12 (HD)
Rogers Ignite	Channel 95 (HD)

Food Network, formerly called Food Network Canada, is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel based on the U.S. cable network of the same name. It airs programming related to food, cooking, cuisine, and the food industry. The Canadian version of Food Network is a joint venture between Food Network Canada Inc. a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment and the U.S. network's parent company Television Food Network, G.P. (which is majority-owned by Warner Bros. Discovery).

Although the U.S. version of the channel became available in Canada from 1997 onwards, this channel went on the air on October 9, 2000 under the joint venture of Corus, Alliance Atlantis and E. W. Scripps Company. Through various ownership changes over the years, Corus fully regained ownership of the channel in 2016.

Corus will lose the rights to the Food Network brand and its U.S. programming at the end of 2024, at which point the existing channel will rebrand as Flavour Network, retaining rights to its Canadian-produced series. A new, separate Food Network owned by Rogers Sports & Media will launch in Canada on January 1, 2025.

History

The U.S. Food Network was available in Canada since 1997 and became one of the more popular foreign cable channels available in Canada. This prompted the creation of a Canadian version which would then be able to access ad revenue through commercials under Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) regulations. Corus Entertainment and Alliance Atlantis launched the channel on October 9, 2000 at 6:00 a.m. EST.

The licence for Food Network Canada was approved by the CRTC in early 2000. The channel was launched in October of that year; on the day of the launch, the U.S. service was removed from the list of foreign channels eligible to be broadcast in Canada.

On January 18, 2008, a joint venture between Canwest and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners known as CW Media bought Alliance Atlantis and gained AAC's interest in Food Network.

On October 27, 2010, ownership changed again as Shaw Communications gained control of Food Network as a result of its acquisition of Canwest and Goldman Sachs' interest in CW Media.^[2]^[3] A high definition simulcast launched on October 5, 2011.^[4] On March 4, 2013, Corus Entertainment (also controlled by the Shaw family) announced the sale of its 22.58% ownership interest in Food Network to Shaw Media, in exchange for Shaw's 49% stake in ABC Spark.^[5] The sale closed in April 2013.^[6]

On April 1, 2016, Shaw Media was subsumed into Corus as part of a corporate reorganization, which reunited Food Network with the active Corus channels.^[7]^[8]

On June 7, 2024, Corus announced it had been informed by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that the latter would be ending its trademark licensing and program output agreements for some WBD-branded channels at the end of 2024.^[9] Three days later, Rogers Sports & Media announced it had reached an agreement with WBD for Canadian rights to lifestyle brands including Food Network beginning in January 2025.^[10] Rogers subsequently announced it intends to launch its own Food Network linear channel on January 1, 2025.^[11]

Corus said in its June announcement that it intended to continue operating many of the affected channels under new brands, with their existing Canadian programming along with "alternate foreign content supply".^[9] In September, Corus announced that the current Food Network would rebrand as "Flavour Network" on December 30, 2024, with its lineup including new and renewed Canadian-produced series (including the next season of Top Chef Canada, and new series featuring Andrew Phung and Pamela Anderson), and new acquisitions (including Gordon Ramsay's Food Stars and Kitchen Nightmares). Some repeats of Food Network U.S. programming will continue airing into 2025.^[12]^[13]