The Asian Food Network (AFN), formerly known as Asian Food Channel, is a Southeast Asian pay television channel and website owned by Warner Bros. Discovery International through its Asia-Pacific division. Launched in 2005, it provides a mix of food programming content primarily focused on Asian cuisine.

History

The Asian Food Channel was co-founded by Hian Goh and Maria Brown in 2005. The idea was conceived by Goh, an investment banker, and Brown, a journalist at the BBC, in 2004 to bring a food television channel to Asia. Content for the network was originally purchased from overseas markets and included shows such as ''Meat and Greet'' and ''Singapore Flavours'' from

Mediacorp Mediacorp Pte. Ltd. is the state media, state-owned media conglomerate of Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the investment arm of the Government of Singapore—it owns and operates television channels, radio, and digital media properties. ...

. In 2009, it launched AFC Studio at

Orchard Central Orchard Central is a shopping mall in Singapore located along the main shopping belt at Orchard Road. It sits on the land previously occupied by an open air carpark and has a 160m frontage along Orchard Road. It was officially opened on 2 July 2 ...

in Singapore. It allowed fans to purchase branded merchandise and also used for original content creation such as ''Great Dinners of the World'' and ''Big Break''. By 2013, the network reached 130 million viewers in 12 markets.

Scripps Networks Interactive Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI) was an American mass media company, which was formed on July 1, 2008, and acquired by and merged into Discovery Communications on March 6, 2018. It was formed in 2008, through the spin-off of the E. ...

purchased the channel in 2013. It became part of

Discovery, Inc. Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1982, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Chan ...

in 2018 when Discovery acquired Scripps Networks Interactive, Six years after the acquisition of the channel by the same company that owned

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery, who manages and operates it as a division of the Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Networks Group. The channel airs both televi ...

, the network was rebranded as the Asian Food Network in 2019, with a larger focus placed on multi-platform content.

Programming

The Asian Food Network provides a wide mix of food programming content that are sourced internationally such as the United Kingdom, the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, as well as Asian specific content from Korea, Japan, China, Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. Most shows are

subtitled Subtitles are texts representing the contents of the audio in a film, television show, opera or other audiovisual media. Subtitles might provide a transcription or translation of spoken dialogue. Although naming conventions can vary, captions ...

, but English shows are sometimes subtitled in Chinese, like in

SkyCable Sky Cable (stylized as SKYcable) is a cable television service of Sky Cable Corporation in the Philippines. It covers areas across the country with both digital and analog cable services, and it has 700,000 subscribers, controlling 45% of th ...

. Others don't have subtitles in English programming such as on

Cignal Cignal (pronounced as ''signal'') is a Philippine satellite television and IPTV provider, owned by Cignal TV Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the MediaQuest Holdings Inc. under the PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund. Cignal's prepaid electroni ...

References

{{Programs Food Network Warner Bros. Discovery Asia-Pacific Warner Bros. Discovery networks Television stations in Singapore Television channels and stations established in 2005 Former E. W. Scripps Company subsidiaries Television channels and networks about food and drink