Television cooking programmes that once filled daytime schedules and created household names have seen a rapid decline in commissioning in the UK this year, while online creators attract millions of viewers with short, nimble videos.
Industry analysts say commissioning for all forms of food programming across British television dropped 44% in the past year, and the BBC has commissioned no new half-hour cooking series so far this year, figures from Ampere Analysis show. Regulators and media executives have warned that the broader TV sector faces serious pressure as audiences migrate to digital platforms.
The shift has been striking in scale as well as speed. In February, ratings firm Nielsen reported that YouTube became the most-watched service on American televisions, and Ofcom said in July that British broadcasting is confronting a crisis that requires urgent action. Some subgenres of TV, such as cooking, have been hit harder than others: Ampere Analysis data shows commissioning declines not only for food but also for documentaries, arts, history, travel, sport and nature, with the steepest fall in cooking shows.
The contrast between legacy TV and online video is visible in a handful of creator success stories. Natalia Rudin, known online as Natsnourishments, posted an Instagram video in January 2023 of a simple bean antipasti-style dish that later had more than a million views; she now has about 1.5 million followers and some clips with more than 20 million views. The rise of creators such as Ben Ebbrell of Sorted Food — whose channel has about 2.89 million subscribers and cumulative view counts in the billions — illustrates how audiences congregate around individual personalities and trends on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
Producers and commissioners cite several factors behind television's decline in the genre. Online creators can respond rapidly to trends, produce content at lower cost and operate without some of the compliance, rights-clearance and editorial constraints that shape broadcast production. Ed Sayer, a veteran producer and commissioner who writes as "The TV Whisperer," said broadcasters face heavy regulation around issues such as recipe ownership, while creators have fewer of those hurdles.
The cultural difference between the platforms is also significant. Producers and some viewers describe social cooking videos as more immediate and authentic. Creators often eschew polished production values in favour of a "rough and ready" style that younger audiences find credible. That authenticity is one reason why formats that foreground real people and unscripted emotion, such as The Great British Bake Off, have remained resilient: its co-creator Richard McKerrow has said the show's success came from bakers who were focused on their craft rather than the camera.
At the same time, much food content that remains on linear television is increasingly supported by external commercial partners. Several recent ITV food series have sponsorship or product-placement arrangements with retailers and tourism boards, including programmes backed by Marks & Spencer, Tourism Ireland and Tourism Australia. Broadcasters and producers say brand funding helps offset falling commissioning budgets but changes editorial dynamics.
The contrast was encapsulated by a single culinary craze. Creators who spotted and quickly capitalised on the cronut — a croissant-donut hybrid that briefly gripped global food interest — were able to produce timely tutorials and recipes that reached vast online audiences. Ben Ebbrell recounted how his channel published the only detailed cronut video available at a moment when newspapers and diners were hungry for information, an agility that conventional television commissioning could not match.
The migration of food culture online raises questions about what is lost when shared television moments diminish. Television executives such as Jonathan Glazier, who has worked on long-running entertainment shows, expressed concern that the decline of mass-broadcast programmes reduces opportunities to present shared stories and characters that connect nationwide audiences. Travel-and-cook series that combined reportage with culinary exploration, once staples of public-service schedules, have become rarer as budgets shrink.
Regulatory bodies and industry figures frame the shift as part of a wider disruption in which audiences chase content across platforms rather than remaining loyal to a single broadcast schedule. Cristina Nicolotti Squires, who oversees TV at Ofcom, warned that "unless something is done soon, this great broadcasting culture and landscape is under threat." Others argue that the appetite for video is not diminishing, only changing shape: viewers still want stories, authenticity and relevance, whichever platform provides them.
Broadcasters face strategic choices. Some are trying to partner with creators to import audiences, while others are adjusting commission strategies and experimenting with formats that foreground competition, narrative or culturally resonant themes. Cooking competitions and shows that emphasise human stories have proved more durable on broadcast television than traditional "stand-and-stir" demonstration programmes, but even successful formats can be costly to produce and harder to scale.
The decline of conventional cooking shows does not mean the end of televised food content, but it signals a reconfiguration of where, how and by whom culinary culture is produced and consumed. Analysts say success in the new landscape will depend on understanding audience behaviour across platforms, negotiating new funding models and preserving the public-service values that underpinned much of the genre's earlier reach. The audience, industry figures note, is no longer captive to any single medium; it will follow storytelling and authenticity wherever creators deliver them.