Agreement brings The HealthCentral Network's health-related programming to viewers of BabyTV.com
JUPITER, Fla., March 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- BabyUniverse, Inc. (NASDAQ:POSH) a leading Internet content, commerce and new media company in the pregnancy, baby and toddler marketplace, announced the addition of health related programming on BabyTV.com, the Internet's first integrated broadcast channel and social networking community focused on the needs of new and expectant parents. In this strategic deal, BabyTV.com has signed a content licensing agreement with The HealthCentral Network, Inc. (http://www.healthcentral.com/), a leading online resource for consumer-oriented health and wellness information, to provide video programming to the popular parenting-focused community.
This agreement will allow BabyTV.com for the first time to supply the video-based health and wellness information that has been requested by parents. This move also illustrates the fast-growing site's evolution as it provides a wider range of content to serve its expanding user base.
The HealthCentral Network will contribute a series of programs relating to children's health topics that explore critical developments in a child's life, with initial topics including autism, ADHD, childhood obesity, diabetes, diet, depression and vaccinations. This new health and fitness content will offer information in 90 second segments and will be featured in BabyTV.com's 24/7 linear schedule of streaming programs. These segments will join other BabyTV.com content that includes programming from Oxygen Media and Alpha Mom.
The HealthCentral Network content will also be available in the BabyTV.com video-on-demand (VOD) library under a newly created Health and Fitness category.
The HealthCentral Network, Inc. (http://www.healthcentral.com/) has more than 30 general health and highly specific condition and wellness web properties. Each site provides timely, interactive, in-depth, and trusted medical information, personalized tools and resources, and connections to engaged communities of expertise for people seeking to engage in, manage and improve their health. The Company recently expanded its health and wellness offerings with the acquisition of FoodFit.com, a leading healthy eating and active living Web site, and produces the Medical Breakthroughs television program, seen around the country. The HealthCentral Network received top recognition from The International Health and Medical Media Awards with a 2006 FREDDIE Award for MyDiabetesCentral.com and was awarded the Health Care Standard of Excellence WebAward from the Web Marketing Association.
Founded in the late 1990s, The HealthCentral Network, Inc. was acquired in 2005 by a team of blue-chip investors, including Sequoia Capital, Polaris Ventures, The Carlyle Group and Allen & Company. With a management team that combines decades of experience in interactive media and medical, science and news journalism, The HealthCentral Network aims for the highest standards of quality, relevance and community for patients and their caregivers.
"There is a tremendous demand by new parents for credible health and wellness information and we're excited to have The HealthCentral Network as our first strategic health related programming provider on the BabyTV.com network," said John Textor, Chairman and CEO of BabyUniverse. "Our agreement with The HealthCentral Network helps to fill a crucial programming niche in BabyTV.com's content offerings by bringing valuable information that can address the questions that are top of mind with parents and parents to be." "BabyTV.com provides a new venue to reach parents that are interested in timely, interactive, in-depth and trusted health information, and we are pleased to enter into a strategic content relationship with BabyTV.com and BabyUniverse," said Atil Erken, Director of Business Development and Strategic Partnership for The HealthCentral Network. "As we look to extend our content to increasingly wider audiences, we look forward to providing additional health and wellness-focused programming to BabyTV.com as our relationship progresses." More About BabyTV.com Debuting in January 2007 to viewers through the Internet, BabyTV.com brings a rich user experience with high quality video content and interactive functionality for parents, parents-to-be, and caregivers. BabyTV.com offers an extensive catalog of streaming television programming targeted to new and expectant parents from recognized experts throughout the industry.
Viewers can tune into the 24/7 linear schedule of programming and video- on-demand (VOD) library filled with entertaining and informative videos from content partners Oxygen Media and Alpha Mom; share self-produced videos through the MyBabyTV section of the site; and easily use interactive functionality to share their opinions about BabyTV content by providing feedback on specific videos, participate in polls, and post original comments in video forums. BabyTV also offers a library of text-based articles written by industry experts that are available to users of the site.
About BabyUniverse, Inc.
BabyUniverse, Inc. (NASDAQ:POSH) is a leading Internet content, commerce and new media company in the pregnancy, baby and toddler marketplace. Through its Web sites, BabyUniverse.com and DreamtimeBaby.com, the company is a leading online retailer of brand-name baby, toddler and maternity products in the United States. Through its Web sites PoshTots.com and PoshLiving.com, the company has extended its offerings in the baby and toddler market as a leading online provider of luxury furnishings to the country's most affluent female consumers. Through PoshCravings.com and ePregnancy.com, BabyUniverse has also established a widely recognized platform for the delivery of content and new media resources to a national audience of expectant parents. BabyUniverse is pursuing a dual strategy of organic growth and acquisition growth that is designed to establish BabyUniverse as the leader in the online baby marketplace. Beyond the baby segment, the company intends to leverage its growing platform to acquire other female-oriented content, commerce and new media companies. The overall objective of BabyUniverse is to establish a market-leading content, commerce and new media business focused on the high- growth female marketplace.
BabyUniverse and its affiliates operate a multi-channel portfolio of Internet properties, including e-commerce sites such as http://www.babyuniverse.com/, http://www.poshtots.com/, http://www.poshliving.com/ and http://www.dreamtimebaby.com/, and content sites such as http://www.poshcravings.com/, http://www.epregnancy.com/, and http://www.babytv.com/.
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties relating to future events or our future financial performance. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. You are advised to consult further disclosures we may make on related subjects in our future filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "could," "should," "expect," "plan," "intend," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or "continue," the negative of such terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. DATASOURCE: BabyUniverse, Inc.
CONTACT: Georgianne Brown of BabyUniverse, +1-561-277-6405, or ; Investors: John Baldissera of BPC Financial Marketing for BabyUniverse, Inc., 800-368-1217 Web site: http://www.healthcentral.com/ http://www.babytv.com/ http://www.babyuniverse.com/
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