Janson Partners with Twitch on Launch of New Food Channel

Janson Media today announced that it has partnered with the live-streaming video platform Twitch.tv to curate content for its new vertical, a channel dedicated to food and cooking. The channel launched with a four-day live-streaming marathon of the classic public television cooking show, The French Chef, starring the inimitable Julia Child. The show was produced from 1963 to 1973 by Boston's WGBH-TV for the National Educational Network, the precursor to PBS.

To mark the day Julia Child graduated from the Cordon Bleu Cooking School in Paris (65 years ago, in 1951), Twitch.tv began live-streaming all 201 episodes of the show at 2:00pm PT on Wednesday, March 15th. Twitch is the world"s leading social video platform and community for gamers, with 100 million unique users and over 20 billion minutes viewed per month. The company chose The French Chef to mark its launch of its new channel. As it did last Fall with the launch of the Bob Ross channel on Twitch, Twitch asked Janson Media to help them secure the rights to the classic television show. Janson turned to their good friends at PBS to make it happen.

Check out the official Twitch announcement and visit the Twitch Food Channel itself to join the fun.

For more information about the classic television series, read the wikipedia entry or read more about Julia Child at wikipedia. For all things Julia visit the website of the Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts.

Read some of the press reaction to the story on these websites:

Nick Wingfield for the New York TimesParesh Dave for the Los Angeles TimesSpencer Soper for Bloomberg BusinessHayley Tsukayama for the Washington PostJames Vincent for The VergeTodd Spangler for VarietyOliver Gettell for Entertainment WeeklyBrett Molina for USA TodayEmily Reynolds for Wired Nick Summers for EngadgetDana Hatic for EaterChelsea Stark for MashableDale Berning Sawa for the GuardianMelonyce McAfee and Katia Hetter for CNNNina Zipkin for EntrepreneurMonica Nickelsburg for GeekwireAmanda Connolly for The Next WebJoan E. Solsman for The WrapSarah Perez for TechcrunchMathew Ingram for Fortune