Rakuten TV Strengthens Food & Culinary Portfolio

Rakuten TV has launched a selection of new channels focused on food and cooking.

The leading European VOD platform has added 'Bon Appétit', 'Tastemade', 'Brindiamo!', 'L'Atelier des Chefs' and 'iFood.tv' to its portfolio, meaning it now offers over 90 free linear channels across 42 countries.  

The line-up and launch timings will vary in each territory; effective immediately Bon Appétit launches in the UK, Ireland and the Nordics. The food brand's unique take on their love of cooking and eating sets challenges to professional chefs and develops recipes for home cooks to try. In the UK, Germany, Nordics and Spain, Tastemade joins the platform, showcasing award-winning series and documentaries on food, travel, home and design. And Italy will soon see the launch of the Brindiamo! Channel with Ornella Fado, which explores and celebrates the best Italian restaurants and Italian cuisine around the world. In France, L'Atelier des Chefs will be available featuring culinary tips from top chefs. Also launched this week, iFood.tv is available across 42 European countries, with a mixture of short and long form culinary content to suit all gastronomic tastes. 

The newly added channels are the latest in a raft of additions to the Rakuten TV platform – who most recently announced the launch of the LEGO® channel, sports channels Tennis Channel and USGA Golf, ¡Hola! Play and dozens more including Bloomberg TV, CNNi, Euronews, FilmRise and Real Stories.

Rakuten TV's ad-supported offering across Lifestyle content broaden opportunities for advertisers to reach highly engaged and valuable audiences, enabling them to place ad inventory across the enhanced portfolio of more than 90 free linear channels, plus thousands of movies and programmes on-demand. Content creators and advertisers have access to Rakuten TV's massive window to more than 90 million households watching linear and on-demand content, through the remote-control button and app pre-installed on smart TV devices from leading manufacturers.

Brands and agencies will be able to access this expanded ad inventory through Rakuten Advertising, where advertisers can buy media across a variety of channels and reach potential new customers in a brand-safe environment that leverages a powerful set of first-party data and audience insights. Drawing on first-party data and extensive audience insights, brands benefit from unique discoverability, combining the targeting and tracking capabilities of digital formats with the advantages of TV.

Rakuten TV's linear channels are part of the FREE service of the platform, which includes FAST and AVOD, and are currently accessible on the Rakuten TV app on Samsung and LG Smart TV devices across 42 European countries.

This wide range of entertainment will be available on the Rakuten TV app, accessible on leading consumer electronics manufacturers Samsung and LG Smart TV devices. Users can easily launch the app with a single click through the branded remote-control button and the pre-installed app.