Radio Times publisher Immediate Media has bought the BBC Good Food brand including its magazine, digital and live events businesses. Immediate, which publishes other food brands including Delicious magazine, Healthy Food Guide and Olive, said the acquisition makes it the “largest food media publisher in the UK”.
The BBC’s commercial arm, BBC Studios (previously BBC Worldwide) owned the BBC Good Food brand, although the magazine was published under contract by Immediate.
Immediate has now licensed the BBC Good Food brand name and bbcgoodfood.com website from BBC Studios as part of the acquisition. The publisher claimed BBC Good Food is the UK’s largest food website with 22m global monthly visitors, and the UK’s best-selling food magazine, with 1.3m monthly readers.
According to the latest ABC figures, the magazine has an average print circulation of 169,506.
Immediate chief executive Tom Bureau said: “Not only is this the biggest brand in food publishing and media, but is absolutely on strategy for Immediate, given our focus on high value special interest communities, and cements our market leadership in the food sector.