The Hallmark Channel is an American cable and satellite television network that is owned by Crown Media Holdings, Inc., which is owned by Hallmark Cards, Inc. The channel's programming is primarily targeted at families, and features a mix of television movies and miniseries, original and acquired television series, and lifestyle programs.
As of February 2015, Hallmark Channel is available to approximately 85,439,000 pay television households (73.4% of households with television) in the United States.
Video Hallmark Channel
History
The Hallmark Channel traces its history to the launch of two separate religious cable channels, the American Christian Television System (ACTS) and the Vision Interfaith Satellite Network (VISN). The two networks began alternating time on a shared transponder slot on the Galaxy III satellite in 1992. Under the original timeshare agreement, the network was branded as VISN/ACTS. Each network was provided time for its programming blocks, and would use their own logos.
VISN launched on July 1, 1988, and was founded by the National Interfaith Cable Coalition, in cooperation with several cable providers. The coalition's membership consisted of 65 different religious groups. It aired for about 16 hours a day and ran religious programs from mainline Protestant denominations such as the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ. Roman Catholic, LDS Church, Jewish, and Islamic faiths also provided programming. VISN aired during the morning and evening hours. ACTS commenced operations in 1984, and was owned by the Southern Baptist Convention. It aired programming from evangelical and fundamentalist non-charismatic Christian groups such as the SBC, the Christian Reformed Church, and the Association of Regular Baptist Churches, as well as well-known evangelists such as Jerry Falwell, Charles Stanley and D. James Kennedy. Both channels aired several hours a week of religious children's programs, some of which overlapped, including Sunshine Factory, Joy Junction, Davey and Goliath, and Jot.
In 1993, the network was renamed as the Faith and Values Channel. It began adding a few secular programs during this time, such as exercise shows, health and cooking shows, and family-oriented drama series and movies.
Odyssey Network
In 1995, cable conglomerate Tele-Communications Inc.'s Liberty Media acquired a 49% ownership stake in the Faith and Values Channel, and took over operational control of the network. It added more secular programming to the network and reduced religious programming to about 10 hours a day. In 1996, the network was rebranded as the Odyssey Network (although on-air promotions often referred to the network simply as "Odyssey"), and launched a website, Odysseyfamily.com, which was used to provide program listings for the network.
In 1997, channel CEO Gary Hill died. "The Teaching of Christ," "The Daily Mass" and "A Biblical Portrait of Marriage" were regular religious programs on the channel. Wholesome off-network series on the channel were "Brooklyn Bridge" and "Trapper John, M.D." and "Davey & Goliath" claymation kids show. The channel produced shows under the Odyssey Productions name. The channel had a variety show hosted by gospel singer CeCe Winans called "CeCe's Place" and launch "Landmarks of Faith" on July 1, 1998.
Hallmark Entertainment and The Jim Henson Company bought significant stakes, paid partly through programming commitments, in Odyssey in late 1998. Liberty had convinced Hallmark not to launch its own domestic channel given difficulty getting carriage. National Interfaith Cable Coalition and Hallmark-Henson would have equal shares while Liberty would increase its stake, while the thee groups would share control of the board. Hallmark and Henson would have say over chief executive selection. While adding Henson's and Hallmark's libraries, the channel could not make major programming format changes so cable systems could not drop them. Hallmark hired former Fox Kids Network worldwide vice-chairman Margaret Loesch that year to overhaul Odyssey into a family channel.
Under the new ownership structure, Odyssey underwent a major programming revamp on April 4, 1999 using the tagline "a Hallmark and Henson Network". The revamp decreased the amount of religious programs on the network down to an average four hours a day, although more hours were religious on the weekend. The channel began to focus more on family-targeted entertainment programming including some classic sitcoms, children's programs and additional family-oriented movies. The premiere show under the new schedule was Gulliver's Travels miniseries, in its cable premiere, was produced by Hallmark and Henson. Henson programming on the channel included The Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock. This revamp had other children's programming like the syndicated Zoobilee Zoo and The Archie Show. The new programming even tapped Hallmark Entertainment's Hal Roach Studios library for Leonard Maltin Presents.
Crown Media Holdings, Inc. in 2000 was formed with Hallmark Entertainment, Chase Equity Associates, Liberty Media, and the National Interfaith Cable Coalition transferred their 77.5 percent total interest in the Odyssey Network into Crown Media Holdings. Henson Company, now owned by EM.TV & Merchandising, traded in March 2001 Crown Media the remaining ownership in the Odyssey Network for 8% in Crown stock.
Hallmark Channel
On August 5, 2001, the channel underwent yet another rebranding, relaunching as the Hallmark Channel. After agreeing to distribute a religious digital cable network among other items to lift restrictions on the Odyssey channel to effect the rebranding with plans to quickly add original programming. New original programming for the year included the third installment of its Sherlock Holmes film series and five other films, two mini-series and three scripted series, one coming from The Jim Henson Company. In April 2001, Crown Media purchased 700 titles from the film library Hallmark Entertainment Distribution, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hallmark Entertainment, for its cable channels and Crown Interactive. The channel began a Sunday night mystery movie wheel series called Mystery Movie in 2004.
In 2002, the Hallmark Channel premiered a weekday morning talk show, New Morning. A Sunday morning version, hosted by Naomi Judd, titled Naomi's New Morning, debuted in 2005 and lasted two years before being pulled from the schedule in early 2007.
Hallmark Channels in international markets were sold for about $242 million in 2005 to Sparrowhawk Media, a private equity group backed by Providence Equity Partners and 3i. The channel in 2005 had its highest-rated year with 34% increase in viewers and ranked seventh in growth. 2005's highest-rated ad-supported basic cable movie with a 3.6 household rating was "Meet the Santas" on Hallmark.
In 2006, the channel acquired a license for 35 Warner Bros. features including "Troy" (2007) and "March of the Penguins" (2005), costing in the multimillion-dollar range. The channel set a new high rating (4.2 household) for an original movie, The Christmas Card, in 2006.
In January 2008, the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign purchased an hour of Hallmark Channel's primetime slots under a paid programming arrangement to run a town hall special promoting Clinton's campaign for President of the United States on February 4, the day before the multi-state "Super Tuesday" primaries. The wheel series "Mystery Movie" was discontinued in 2008 as the channel was doing better with lighter romances.
With a change in company president in May 2009, the new president planned to move the channel away from dependence on the Western to more light hearted fare to de-age their viewers with out alienating their current viewers and match the Hallmark brand more. In mid-June 2009, the network announced it would sell individual ad breaks featuring a single advertiser. The so-called "Fast Breaks" are prefaced with short bumpers announcing that the program streaming will return after a 30-second break. The cost of such standalone spots is about double that of a regular 30-second commercial on the channel. Hallmark Channel signed insurance company Mutual of Omaha as the first buyer. In late 2009, The National Tree film kick off its first annual Countdown to Christmas seasonal programming.
2010 saw the channel make a push into lifestyle programming. A January 2010 multi-year deal with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO) brought The Martha Stewart Show from syndication to Hallmark in September. Steward would also produce four prime-time one hour specials for the channel. Hallmark was looking to be a holiday programming destination. On March 26, 2010, a new home and lifestyle block during weekday daytime of Martha Stewart shows started airing on the channel for seven hours. A shorter Stewart block would also air on the weekends. After one month on air with lackluster ratings, the block was reduced to five hours. In January 2012, the channel canceled The Martha Stewart Show given the show's cost effective with the end of the season in May with reruns through the summer months, but intend to retain a couple of MSLO shows.
In 2011, Hallmark started its animal featuring shows with Hero Dog Awards. Its 2014 Kitten Bowl, up against the Super Bowl, got 1 million viewers.
In the fourth quarter of 2012, Hallmark Channel did a makeover of its daytime schedule. The channel launched a Marie! talk show starring Marie Osmond, and Home and Family, while running repeats of three MSLO programs. Two TV pilot movies, Cedar Cove and When Calls the Heart, both book adaptations, were also shown. Home and Family was previously on The Family Channel. Cedar Cove was ordered to a series, the channel's first prime time original series, in October 2012 even before its January 2013 movie premiere. and When Calls was also picked up as a series.
With the 2011-2012 season, the ABC network had picked up Hallmark Hall of Fame with the Hallmark Channel showing the Fame movie a week later. The Hall of Fame series was moved from ABC to Hallmark with the 2014-2015 season and would air as many as four times a year. The first episode to debut on Hallmark Channel was One Christmas Eve, starring Anne Heche. On the cable channel, four original movies at most would air as a part of the Hall of Fame with multiple encores. The HHOF library would also be available.
On March 15, 2013, the channel started its family-friendly Friday night movie series, Walden Family Theater in partnership with Walden Media and others. In an unusual deal in 2013, CBS syndicated The Good Wife to Hallmark, two streaming services and TV stations, who got the shows on weekends. While the show met its good story-telling goal with the series showing four hours in prime time, the channel pulled the show after many months as it did not fit in other ways.
Maps Hallmark Channel
Programming
Hallmark Channel's programming consists of classic and some recent television series, and original made-for-TV movies. It also airs the Hallmark Hall of Fame anthology series.
Original programs broadcast on the network include the daytime talk show Home and Family (which originated on Freeform when it was known as The Family Channel, in April 1996) and When Calls the Heart (which is based on the novels by Janette Oke). The network's original programming originally consisted mainly of lifestyle programs and made-for-TV movies; Hallmark Channel debuted its first prime time original scripted series in July 2013, with the premiere of Cedar Cove (which is based on the novels by Debbie Macomber).
Original movies
The network's made-for-TV movies are characterized as family-friendly and inspirational, ranging from holiday-themed films to westerns. In the early stages of the channel's development, Hallmark Channel had a steady one-movie-a-month, or 12-a-year, production schedule with the films mainly being produced by RHI Entertainment. However, in 2008, Crown Media had ramped up its production schedule to approximately 30 movies a year and opened up to other production companies, though RHI still produces some movies for Hallmark Channel. The network premiered 35 original movies during the period from 2009 to 2010. Hallmark Channel released 25 television movies during the 2011 calendar year.
Series
- Hallmark Hall of Fame: Originally only an encore or library home for the Hallmark Hall of Fame anthology film series, the series moved its original showings to the channel in 2014.
- Mystery Movie (also Hallmark Channel Mystery Wheel): The channel began a Sunday night mystery movie wheel series called Mystery Movie in 2004. This wheel series consisted of four individual movie series of four films that would also be later shown on Hallmark Movie Channel. Two of the film series were "Mystery Woman" and "Jane Doe". A successor series, "Original Mystery Wheel", was established in 2015 on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel.
- Walden Family Theater: On March 15, 2013, the channel started its family friendly Friday night movie series, Walden Family Theater in partnership with Walden Media, Arc Entertainment, Proctor & Gamble and Walmart. P&G and Walmart were sponsoring partners with Walmart selling the movies DVD in store the Tuesday after airing. While Arc and Walden were producing partners. The first movie was the world premiere of Return to Nim's Island, one of six new films produced for the series. Space Warriors was one of them. Additional films would be drawn from Hallmark's films. The series' second season was launched on September 6, 2013 with new film, Dear Dumb Diary, from Walden with The Watsons Go to Birmingham schedule.
Holiday programming
From the last weekend in October until January 1, Hallmark Channel runs a seasonal block called Countdown to Christmas, featuring a mix of holiday movies, specials and holiday-themed original programming. The block is branded as Countdown to New Years from December 26 until January 1 and culminates with the channel's broadcast of the Tournament of Roses Parade. Hallmark Channel also airs Christmas movies during July as part of a Christmas in July block; Christmas-themed programming thus runs for nearly three months of the year on the channel. Other seasonal events programmed by Hallmark Channel include romance-themed movies and specials that air during the first half of February in the lead-up to Valentine's Day; movies and specials relating to Mother's Day and Father's Day respectively air during May and June; and Halloween-themed movies and specials (among which include the channel's The Good Witch film series) during the month of October.
Actresses frequently featured in the channel's Christmas films include Candace Cameron Bure (who does other work for Hallmark Channel, mainly as Aurora Teagarden), Lacey Chabert, and Danica McKellar.
During the 2017 holiday season, the Hallmark Channel will premier 33 original Christmas holiday films; this is up from a total of 28 holiday movies in 2016. Hallmark has a total of 136 Christmas holiday-themed movies in their original library of films.
Animal special franchise
With the success with Dog Hero Awards, the channel started a franchise out of the show with additional shows that counter programming major sporting events. Beyond the Dog Hero Awards and the Kitten Bowl, the channel has Paw-Star Game, on during MLB's All-Star Game,) and Summer Kitten Games countering in its first showing the Rio Olympics. On February 2, 2014, the Hallmark Channel partnered with New York's North Shore Animal League and Last Hope Animal Rescue to debut the Kitten Bowl during Super Bowl XLVIII. The event - hosted by Beth Stern and announcers John Sterling and Mary Carillo - is designed as counterprogramming to the Super Bowl and airs during the game's halftime show, and is similar to another animal-themed event that debuted nine years earlier on Animal Planet, the Puppy Bowl. Kitten Bowl II returned on February 1, 2015, and was watched by 1.3 million viewers. A new Kitten Bowl has aired every year since, running repeatedly on Super Bowl Sunday in a 3-hour program that includes "playoff games".
Carriage disputes and additions
Hallmark Channel and co-owned film service Hallmark Movie Channel were dropped by AT&T U-verse on September 1, 2010, due to a carriage dispute resulting from a proposed increase in retransmission consent payments that U-verse considered to be disproportionate with the lower audience viewership for the channels at the time. As of July 23, 2015, the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries returned to U-verse.
On October 20, 2016, Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel were added to Sling TV service. On November 15, 2017, PlayStation Vue added Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and Hallmark Drama to their lineup.
Hallmark Channel around the world
Hallmark Channel operated several cable channels in various international markets. Outside of the United States, the Hallmark Channel services were owned by NBCUniversal under a brand licensing agreement with Crown Media Holdings, and were run by different entities that had access to the Hallmark name and brand. The international channel maintained different programming and content standards than the flagship U.S. service. Around 2010/2011 the international versions of Hallmark Channel ended their existence and were rebranded as Universal Channel, Diva Universal, 13th Street, or simply closed.
Network slogans
- "Where Great Stories Come to Life" (2001-2008)
- "Make Yourself at Home" (2008-2012)
- "The Heart of TV" (2012-present)
See also
- Hallmark Channel Mystery Wheel (category)
- Hallmark Channel original films (category)
- Hallmark Hall of Fame
- Hallmark Movie Channel
- List of Hallmark Channel Original Movies
- List of programs broadcast by Hallmark Channel
References
External links
- Official website
Source of article : Wikipedia
0 Comments