As the market for syndicated video heats up, Roku signed a deal enabling its TV set-top players to stream programs from HealthiNation.
Per the agreement, HealthiNation’s health content is available to Roku customers for free. The videos are accessed via an app that launches on the Roku player.
The partnership follows a string of distribution pacts that have given HealthiNation entrée into cable TV On Demand, online and doctor’s offices. Roku is the firm’s first IP-connected platform.
“There’s an explosion of new device platforms that connect in real time to the web, and that’s creating a secondary market,” said HealthiNation CEO Raj Amin. “We want to be at the forefront of innovation as these platforms evolve.”
HealthiNation videos cover condition-related topics as well as nutrition and healthy living, and are hosted by physicians or other health experts. Amin, whose firm produces the content and sells ads against it, maintains that syndication is critical for achieving scale in video.
Indeed, comScore’s August Video Metrix ranking, which now also measures syndicated video companies, shows these companies seem to be outdueling the online ad networks for eyeballs. Syndicators like 5Min Health (6.2 million uniques) and HealthiNation (2.1 million uniques) rank in the top three for overall unique video visitors in health, well above industry players WebMD (1.5 million) and Everyday Health (293,000).
| Online health video, total audience | |||
| Total unique viewers, sessions and minutes for August 2011 | |||
| US | Total unique viewers (thousands) | Viewing sessions (thousands) | Minutes per viewer |
| 5Min Health | 6,223 | 36,035 | 34.1 |
| HealthGuru Sites | 2,888 | 13,288 | 28.8 |
| HealthiNation.com | 2,126 | 5,494 | 25 |
| WebMD Health | 1,507 | 1,870 | 3.3 |
| LiveStrong – eHow Health | 784 | 1,553 | 15.8 |
| Source: comScore Video Metrix | |||
The audience numbers for video “put us well above sites that are destinations only,” said Amin. “You can’t really play in the bigger scale game if you don’t have a syndication strategy because you can’t deliver enough reach in one single destination.”
He said HealthiNation serves its ads directly through its own ad server to platforms that feature its videos, and the company offers advertisers a guarantee of running with content they approve of.
Last year, HealthiNation won accreditation from URAC, a Washington, DC-based standards organization. At the time, HealthiNation said the accreditation ensures that its shows are medically accurate.
