The Hallmark Channel is a cable television network that broadcasts across the United States. Their programming includes a mix of television movies/miniseries, syndicated series, and lifestyle shows that are appropriate for the whole family. It is owned by Crown Media Holdings, which in turn majority-owned by Hallmark Cards.

History[link]

In the United States, the network began as two separate religious cable channels, the American Christian Television System (ACTS) and the Vision Interfaith Satellite Network (VISN). These two networks shared time on the same channel beginning in 1992.^[1] Under the original timeshare agreement, the network was believed to be called VISN/ACTS. Each station was provided time for its programming blocks, and would use its own logo.

VISN began broadcast in 1988 aired about 16 hours a day and had religious programs from mainline Protestant denominations like the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, United Church of Christ, and others. Roman Catholic, LDS Church, Jewish and Islamic faiths also provided programming.^[2] VISN aired in mornings and evenings. ACTS commenced operations in 1984 and aired programming from evangelical and fundamentalist non- charismatic Christian groups like Southern Baptist Convention, Christian Reformed Church, Association of Regular Baptist Churches, as well as well known evangelists like Jerry Falwell, Charles Stanley, D James Kennedy, among others. Both channels had several hours a week of religious children's programs, some of which overlapped. These shows included Sunshine Factory, Joy Junction, Davey and Goliath, Jot, and others.

In 1993, the network was renamed "The Faith and Values Channel". It began to phase out religious programming in 1994, when a few secular shows were added, such as exercise shows, health and cooking shows, and family-friendly dramas and movies. More secular programming was added in 1996. At that time religious programming went down to about 10 hours a day. Faith And Values was then renamed "The Odyssey Channel", using the domain name Odysseyfamily.com for posting TV listings.

Crown Media Holdings and The Jim Henson Company bought stakes in Odyssey in November 1998. The Hallmark/Henson version of Odyssey launched on April 4, 1999, and the airing of religious programs went down to four hours a day. Some classic sitcoms, children's programming, and more family movies were added. Henson sold its interest in the channel to Crown Media Holdings in 2000. Odyssey then dropped much of the children's programming and cut back the religious shows to a few hours on Sundays.

History as Hallmark Channel[link]

The channel was officially renamed The Hallmark Channel on August 5, 2001.^[3] The channel completely dropped religious programing altogether, but continued to focus on family and drama shows, drama movies, classic sitcoms, and other general entertainment. A remnant of the VISN network continues to own about 5% of the channel, and still produces some content for them.^[4] The change meant that The Kermit Channel in Asia was also changed to The Hallmark Channel, reducing the former to a three-hour block on Hallmark.^[5]

Hallmark Channel aired an original weekday morning show entitled "New Morning" in 2002 and added a Sunday morning version, hosted by Naomi Judd, entitled "Naomi's New Morning" in 2005. The show was pulled from the schedule in early 2007.

David Evans was CEO of the newly-developing network, until he resigned in May 2006.^[6] The network was without a formal CEO until October 2006, when Henry Schleiff was appointed as the new CEO, overseeing all of the networks’ divisions.^[7] Prior to this position, Schleiff was Chairman and CEO of Court TV.^[8]

In January 2007, Hallmark Channel dropped the Hallmark crown from its logo, but still uses it in certain places on-air, and in other countries. In 2008, Hallmark Channel unveiled a new branding campaign with predominantly yellow-ish gold coloring, a stylized logo, and a new slogan, "Make Yourself At Home". In January 2010, their on-air branding was revamped for HD broadcasting. A predominatly lavender color scheme, 3D renderings of the Hallmark script logo, and relatively simple elements make up the new look, including a new slogan, "Celebrate Life's Moments." Also, that month, the crown was reinstated on their on-screen bug for the 100th anniversary of Hallmark and, as of June 2010, has returned to full time use on the bug, promos and their website.

On May 27, 2007, Hallmark Channel launched "Watch With Me", a new national public affairs initiative aimed to promote programming for families to watch together, and "to spend more time together."^[3]

In February 2008, the Hillary Clinton campaign purchased an hour of Hallmark Channel's primetime under a paid programming arrangement on February 4, 2008, the day before the multi-state "Super Tuesday (2008)" primaries.^[9]

On May 6, 2009, Henry Schlieff stepped down as CEO. William J. Abbott, Executive Vice President of Advertising Sales stepped in to the position the same day. Both parties said Schleiff's departure was amicable.^[10] Later that month it was announced that Crown Media Holdings had put the channel up for sale, which was burdened with over $1 billion in debt for the network. After over a month with no prospects for buying the network, it was taken off the block; the board blamed the large debt for the lack of interest. CEO William J. Abbott decided that Crown Media Holdings would take the network in a younger, "lighter" direction, while continuing to cater to baby boomers.^[11]

Programming[link]

Hallmark Channel Headquarters, Studio City, CA

Hallmark Channel airs syndicated series, original movies, and past segments from their parent company's Hallmark Hall of Fame anthology series, which features made-for-television movies and miniseries, most of them from the series' CBS run. Television series on Hallmark Channel include The Waltons, The Golden Girls, Cheers, I Love Lucy, Frasier, Little House on the Prairie and Cheers.

Timberly Whitfield began hosting the award-winning, magazine-style television series New Morning with Timberly Whitfield on the channel in 2002. The show ran for six seasons.^[12]

In September 2010, Hallmark Channel launched "Hallmark Channel Home", now known as "Hallmark Channel Daytime", which currently airs from 10:00am to 3:00pm EDT weekdays. Programming on the block includes programming produced by Martha Stewart Omnimedia. Hallmark Channel Home currently airs The Martha Stewart Show, her flagship show; Mad Hungry with Lucinda Scala Quinn, a cooking show with simple recipes to "bring back the family meal", Petkeeping with Marc Morrone, and a daily cooking show called "Emeril's Table" hosted by Emeril Lagasse.^[13] Martha Stewart will also produce prime-time specials for the network.^[14] The syndicated television series and movies continue to air outside of the five hour weekday block, which airs from 10:00AM–3:00PM EDT.

Programming on Hallmark Channel is organized into blocks, with each series outside the daytime block airing (in most cases) four consecutive episodes (in the case of The Waltons, it is only three episodes, due to overrun from the daytime block). However Cheers only airs two episodes daily.

Original movies[link]

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, the channel had a steady one-movie-a-month, or 12-a-year, production schedule and were mainly produced by RHI Entertainment. However, in 2008 the company had ramped up their production schedule to approximately 30 movies a year and opened up to other production companies, though RHI still produces some movies for Hallmark Channel.^[15] The network released 35 original movies for the 2009-2010 season.^[3][16] Hallmark Channel released 25 new movies for the 2011 year.

Holiday Countdowns[link]

Representing the Hallmark brand, the network counts down to certain holidays with movies and specials retaining to the holiday. Along with that are festive ideas from Martha Stewart, including special episodes from Hallmark Channel Daytime programing. Special on-screen graphics are shown counting down the days to a certain upcoming holiday. The channels website also features a page informing viewers of special programming and fun things at the time of that certain holiday. Holiday countdowns include:

• Countdown To Valentine's Day for two weeks in February.
• Countdown To Mother's Day for one week in May.
• Countdown To Father's Day for one week in June.
• Countdown To Halloween for two weeks in October.
• Countdown To Christmas from mid November until December 25. Thanksgiving will coincide with the countdown during the season.
• Countdown To New Years from December 26 to the new year, ending with the Tournament of Roses Parade.

High definition[link]

Hallmark Channel HD, a 1080i high definition simulcast of Hallmark Channel, launched on February 1, 2010.^[17] DirecTV added the HD channel to their lineup on June 23, 2010.^[18]

Consumer website[link]

On November 19, 2007, the network refreshed its consumer website, www.hallmarkchannel.com, offering users microsites dedicated to original programming and marketing initiatives,^[3] such as sweepstakes and special 'events' like "Crime Time Sunday".^[19] Some of the microsites have games centered around the movie's theme.^[20]

They also began to stream their award-winning original series, Adoption,^[21] marking the first time the network has scheduled a full-length program online.^[3]

On Location[link]

On July 21, 2008, the website launched its original online series called "On Location" that features an on-camera host who introduces interviews and behind-the-scenes footage from the filming of Hallmark Channel's original movies. The segments are featured on each movies' individual microsite.^[3] The series had a soft launch in July 2007 with the title "Inside Story" and a different host for Avenging Angel,^[22] Charlie & Me,^[23] The Good Witch,^[24] Daniel's Daughter,^[25] and The Note.^[26]

In 2009, the online show was revamped again, removing the on-camera host altogether. Love Takes Wing is the last title featured in an "On Location" with an on-camera host. All titles following do not have an on-camera host.^[27]

Online movie shop[link]

On January 29, 2009, the company announced the development of an online movie shop at both www.hallmarkchannel.com and www.hallmarkmoviechannel.com featuring DVD movies and movie-related products from its library.^[28] The shop is powered by the Amazon Associates program. Since its soft launch in mid-2008, Hallmark Channel has already generated sales of over 10,000 items. The network earns a commission on each sale.^[29]

Advertising[link]

In mid-June 2009, the network announced it would sell individual ad breaks featuring a single advertiser. The so-called "Fast Breaks" will come with short bumpers announcing that the show will return in 30 seconds. 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.^[11]

Hallmark Channel around the world[link]

The name Hallmark is also used for various cable channels worldwide. Hallmark Channel across the world is owned by NBC Universal and is run by different entities that have access to the Hallmark name and brand. They also have different programming and standards than Hallmark Channel USA.

AT&T U-verse carriage dispute[link]

Hallmark Channel and sister channel Hallmark Movie Channel were removed from the AT&T U-verse lineup on September 1, 2010 due to a carriage dispute.^[30] It is assumed that Hallmark wants to substantially increase fees, and that AT&T does not wish to pay these greatly-increased fees.

Censorship policies[link]

Some Hallmark Channel viewers^[31] have raised concerns with the network over its censorship policies. Words such as butt, Hell, puke and broad (in reference to a woman) are dubbed out, and removed from captions, even though these words are not typically considered inappropriate by the FCC. Curiously, racial slurs like nigger (Little House on the Prairie) and gook (M.A.S.H.) have not been censored. In response to a consumer inquiry, a representative of the network said:

"Crown Media Networks is committed to family friendly programming. Our Standards & Practices ( "S&P" — the things that are or are not acceptable for a particular network) are very conservative. There are words and phrases commonly used on other cable channels and broadcast networks that Hallmark Channel`s S&P guidelines deem unacceptable."

Despite claims that such material is objectionable according to the network's standards, sitcoms such as Frasier and The Golden Girls — which often feature themes of sexuality and promiscuity — are aired regularly.

See also[link]

• Hallmark Movie Channel
• List of programs broadcast by Hallmark Channel
• List of Hallmark Channel Original Films
• Hallmark Hall of Fame
• Hallmark Channel Mystery Wheel

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website