Ray’s culinary shows have been celebrated overseas, and since Ray’s daily talkfest airs on different, nonlifestyle channels, there seems to be plenty of room for Ray on international TV sets. Program sales are not the only way Scripps makes money. The company is expanding its licensing initiatives domestically and internationally. Phiderika Foust, senior vice president, Business Development for Scripps Networks, explained that while some Nigella Lawson product is available abroad (thanks to her U.K. fame), most licensing campaigns are national in scope. But in the coming months, Food Network plans to bring its brands to a shop near you. “Emeril Lagasse, Rachael Ray and Paula Deen have developed efforts, and others have licensing efforts made up of one or two items,” said Foust. “We are working with talent to create extensive licensing campaigns. The Food Network brand brings a multi-platform approach,” she said. Until now the companies’ licensing campaigns have been focused largely on online applications (such as VoD programs) and cookbooks. The net’s biggest licensing deal to date rolled out in September, and involved the introduction of 400 skews of product — spanning all categories of housewares — into 932 Kohl’s stores across the U.S. “Our first objective is to create a Food Network licensing program that is robust,” said Foust. “And the second is to pair Food Network product with talent.” Foust expects Ingrid Hoffmann — a Latin American celebrity who recently joined the Food Network team — to have what it takes to carry a licensing campaign. “We like to believe we started the trend of celebrity-‘chefdom’ and we want to be a part of that going forward,” she said. But if there’s one thing that a tour of the Food Network shows, it’s that it takes a lot of behind-the-scenes cooks to create one celebrity cook. Thanks to a team of sous-chefs and a crew whose main purpose is to rev up the audience, Emeril puts on quite a show, allowing the audience occasional nibbles of his food. Guests are seated and an hour and half (and a whole lot of commercial break pauses) later a meal is cooked and a show is in the bag. Unfortunately for this journalist, the food was scarce, and snacks were limited to gourmet potato chips. But at the very least the food smelled delicious, and the recipe for fish tacos has since been put into practice…with some very tasty results. LCB OC T O B E R 2 0 0 7 (Continued from Page 24) TV Dinners Phiderika Foust, senior vice president, Business Development, Scripps Networks Emeril Lagasse, whom many credit with getting the Food Network on its feet. The waterfall in the lobby of Food Network’s New York City headquarters
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