Veria’s Path to Promoting Health & Wellness

The U.S. cable network Veria is opening up its catalogue of healthy lifestyle and wellness programming for the international market.

Dedicating to bringing natural wellness to the mainstream, Veria was created as an outlet for showcasing unique, fun and rewarding ways for people to lead healthy, active lifestyles. The company’s commitment to empowering people in their pursuit of natural health and wellness is shown 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on the HD channel Veria TV. While the linear network is only currently available in the U.S., its message is universal, going out to anyone who is looking to improve their lifestyle or health.

"I think any human wants to live a better life, no matter where they live, no matter what socio-economic place they are in; we all want to live better, healthier lives," says Hal Rosenberg, the general manager of Veria. Rosenberg stresses that the channel is designed to be approachable, affordable and "not preachy." He says, "We’re an entertaining channel, we don’t preach to people. We want every person who comes in contact with our programming or our network to be comfortable, to be engaged."

Veria has created 26 original programs, all in high definition, that air on its dedicated channel. These series are all devoted to helping people live healthier and happier lives. Rosenberg explains: "When our founder, Subhash Chandra, came up with the concept for Veria he invested a lot of money into making programming. He believes that you can’t go out into the marketplace and get distribution unless you have the foundation of programming. That’s why we spent [a significant amount of money] creating these 26 shows in pure high definition…. We’re very fortunate to have this treasure trove of more than 500 hours of natural health and wellness programming in our library."

Veria is now opening up that library to the international market, heading to MIPCOM with three key titles to offer.

Leading off the slate is The Incurables, which touches on the serious topic of life-threatening diseases and chronic illnesses like cancer, heart disease and diabetes. The reality series follows patients who became advocates of a natural, healthy lifestyle after overcoming crippling illnesses or life-threatening diseases. "This is what you call the lump-in-the-throat kind of show," says Rosenberg. "It’s been received so well on our network and we’re so excited to now be selling it to a worldwide audience."

Veria is also highlighting Under the Sun, a travel series. Hosted by Nathan LeRoy, the show gives viewers a taste of organic, natural foods, from various locales around the world. LeRoy, a native of England currently living in India, shares his genuine love and passion for natural, organic foods and the communities who make it happen. Rounding out the offerings is Fed Up!, hosted by Andrea Beaman, former Top Chef contestant and celebrated natural foods chef. "She invites real people on to her show that are struggling with obesity or who are parents trying to find ways to cook for their children so that they won’t be obese," Rosenberg explains. "There’s a lot of cooking shows at MIPCOM, but I doubt if there’s another show like Fed Up! that’s really devoted to the natural, healthy way of delicious cooking."

Currently, the Veria portfolio features all in-house productions, however, Rosenberg says that at MIPCOM a focus will also be acquiring content. "I’m very anxious to see what else is out there in terms of licensing some programming," he adds.

Veria also has a robust website filled with information and advice on holistic practices and productions. All of this lends itself quite naturally for Veria to branch out into licensing its own lifestyle products, which Rosenberg says he’s already exploring. "We’re now talking about doing a digital cookbook. We’re in the process now of creating a whole line of brand-new natural wellness products that we’re going to be introducing to the American market in the first half of next year. We’ll have new products, digital cookbooks, we have over 800 recipes on our website, we have a search function on our website so that if you’re traveling throughout the United States you can find natural restaurants, it’s like Zagats for natural restaurants!"

He continues, "This is a very big idea. We have a lot going on. We want to make a big splash at MIPCOM. At a show like MIPCOM, people want to know what’s new, what’s exciting… well that’s what we are: new and exciting."

To view a highlight reel for Veria, please click here.