Carlton in Joint Venture To Create TV And Internet Food And Drink Channel

Carlton Communications has announced that it has signed a 50:50 joint deal with supermarket chain J Sainsbury to create Britain’s first TV and internet food and drink channel. The deal will see Carlton’s SimplyFood website merge with Sainsbury’s tasteforlife site to form taste.co.uk. Along with Carlton’s cable and digital channel, the Carlton Food Network, and a new TV channel launched next year called Taste TV, the site will form part of a new company, the Taste Network.
The company, which was formed following a memorandum of understanding signed in May this year, points to research by the Henley Centre which suggests that shopping via the TV will overtake internet shopping by 2004, and that 90% of UK homes will have interactive shopping by 2010. Sainsbury’s believes that the UK online grocery market will be worth around £7.5bn by 2005. Internet access via TV is already offered by another joint venture of Carlton’s, ONdigital, which it co-owns with Granada.