Food Network Marries Tradition With New-School Food Filmography

We partnered with social video analytics company Tubular Labs to see which food-focused creators brought the most people to the table last month across both Facebook and YouTube.

Overall, Facebook remains a behemoth when it comes to views, overwhelmingly beating out YouTube in the food space (in fact, a few of these top creators don’t even have a YouTube presence). While it will probably come as no shock that Buzzfeed’s Tasty tops the list, TV powerhouse Food Network snags second place, followed by Hearst’s Delish.

Of particular note is how Food Network has jumped on board the popular top-down style of cooking videos that are so ubiquitous in Tasty’s feed. Most of the network’s most-watched online videos during July have some form of how-to using this perspective. But at the same time Food Network continues to embrace its usual personality-driven approach — its third most-watched video in July was "Episode 3: Creoles & Crawfish” with Lazarus Lynch, a judge on Summer Cook Off. Other episodes featuring Lynch-promoted additional broadcasts on Food Network proper. The company seems to be marrying the old-school use of online video to promote TV with the newer trend of snackable, flashy how-to videos that viewers are so eager to consume.

Tasty takes first with 113 million views on YouTube and 598 million on Facebook. Its most-watched video in July was “Lasagna Dome,” with 22 million total views, 16.5 million of which occurred in the first three days, according to Tubular’s V3 rating.

In second place: Food Network with 4.1 million views on YouTube and 392 million on Facebook. Fans flocked to its “How to Make Tequila With Jose Cuervo” video, which has 24.4 million views and counting, with a Tubular V3 rating of 7 million.

Delish is at No. 3 with 2.7 million views on YouTube and 415 million views on Facebook. Its most-watched video was “How to Make Cabbage Lasagna” with 12.4 million Facebook views, 3.9 million of which occurred in the first three days according to Tubular’s V3 rating.