The
Hallmark Channel is a
cable televisionCable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
network that broadcasts across the United States. Their programming includes a mix of television movies/
miniseriesA miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
, syndicated series, and lifestyle shows that are appropriate for the whole family. It is owned by Crown Media Holdings, which in turn is majority-owned by
Hallmark CardsHallmark Cards is a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce C. Hall, Hallmark is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts....
.
History
In the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the network began as two separate religious cable channels, the
American Christian Television SystemThe American Christian Television System was a television network developed in the 1980s by the Southern Baptist Convention . Plans for the network involved a combination of low and full-power stations, most of which were to be built, and carriage on local cable TV networks.Religious denominations...
(ACTS) and the
Vision Interfaith Satellite NetworkThe Vision Interfaith Satellite Network was a religious television network formed in the late 1980s. The channel became known as the PBS of religion for the inclusive nature of its programming, which was designed to "place its accent on dialogue rather than apologies."The network was formed by...
(VISN). These two networks shared time on the same channel beginning in 1992. 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 ChurchThe United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...
, the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in AmericaThe Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is a mainline Protestant denomination headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA officially came into existence on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three churches. As of December 31, 2009, it had 4,543,037 baptized members, with 2,527,941 of them...
,
United Church of ChristThe United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination primarily in the Reformed tradition but also historically influenced by Lutheranism. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC...
, and others. Roman Catholic, LDS Church, Jewish and Islamic faiths also provided programming. VISN aired in mornings and evenings. ACTS commenced operations in 1984 and aired programming from
evangelicalEvangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
and fundamentalist non- charismatic Christian groups like
Southern Baptist ConventionThe Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States, with over 16 million members...
,
Christian Reformed ChurchThe Christian Reformed Church in North America is a Protestant Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. Having roots in the Dutch Reformed churches of the Netherlands, the Christian Reformed Church was founded by Gijsbert Haan and Dutch immigrants who left the Reformed Church in...
,
Association of Regular Baptist ChurchesThe Association of Regular Baptist Churches is one of the smaller Canadian Baptist bodies. Formed in 1957, the association is fundamentalist and separatist in its doctrine. ARBC supports the Toronto Baptist Seminary and Bible College, and publishes The Gospel Witness. Currently the ARBC has 10...
, as well as well known evangelists like
Jerry FalwellJerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator from the United States. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...
,
Charles StanleyCharles Stanley , is a US preacher, Pastor of First Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia.Charles Stanley may also refer to:*Charles H...
, 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 FactorySunshine Factory was a Christian children's show that aired originally in 1984 and was syndicated nationally. The children who starred in the show would leave the real world and visit the Sunshine Factory by traveling through a psychedelic portal; the Factory was inhabited by hand puppets who...
,
Joy Junction,
Davey and GoliathDavey and Goliath is a 1960s stop-motion animated children's Christian television series. The programs, produced by the Lutheran Church in America , were produced by Art Clokey after the success of his Gumby series.Each 15-minute episode features the adventures of Davey Hansen and his "talking"...
,
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 MediaCrown Media Holdings, Inc. is a United States media production company with corporate headquarters located in Studio City, California, and is controlled by Hallmark Cards....
Holdings and
The Jim Henson CompanyThe Jim Henson Company, an American entertainment organization, traces its origins to the founding of Muppets, Inc. in 1958 by puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. The Muppets helped the company gain worldwide acclaim in family entertainment for more than four decades...
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
The channel was officially renamed
The Hallmark Channel on August 5, 2001. 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. 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.
Hallmark Channel aired an original weekday morning show entitled "
New MorningNew Morning is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 11th studio album, released by Columbia Records in October 1970.Coming only four months after the controversial Self Portrait, the more concise and immediate New Morning won a much warmer reception from fans and critics. Most welcome was the return of...
" in 2002 and added a Sunday morning version, hosted by
Naomi JuddNaomi Judd is an American country music singer, songwriter, and activist.-Personal life:She was born Diana Ellen Judd to Charles Glen Judd and his wife Pauline Judd on January 11, 1946, in Ashland, Kentucky. Her father owned a gas station; her mother started out as a homemaker but later became a...
, 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. 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. Prior to this position, Schleiff was Chairman and CEO of
Court TVtruTV is an American cable television network owned by Turner Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Time Warner. The network launched as Court TV in 1991, changing to truTV in 2008...
.
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."
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.
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. 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.
Programming
See: List of Programs broadcasting currently
Hallmark Channel airs syndicated series, original movies, and past segments from their parent company's
Hallmark Hall of FameHallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The second longest-running television program in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2011...
anthology series, which features made-for-television
moviesA film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and
miniseriesA miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
, most of them from the series'
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
run. Television series on Hallmark Channel include
Empty NestEmpty Nest is an American sitcom that originally aired on NBC from 1988 to 1995. The series was created as a spin-off of The Golden Girls by creator and producer Susan Harris. For its first three seasons, Empty Nest was one of the year's top 10 most-watched programs...
,
The WaltonsThe Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show centered on a family growing up in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II. The series pilot was a television...
,
The Golden GirlsThe Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris, which originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida...
,
CheersCheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...
,
I Love LucyI Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
,
FrasierFrasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...
and
Little House on the PrairieLittle House is a series of children's books by Laura Ingalls Wilder that was published originally between 1932 and 1943, with four additional books published posthumously, in 1962, 1971, 1974 and 2006.-History:...
.
Timberly Whitfield- Early life :Born in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S., her United Methodist Church lay missionary parents moved Whitfield and her brother to Tanzania, East Africa, when she was six. As a Swahili-speaking eight-year-old, Whitfield taught English to local Tanzanian children...
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.
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'Emeril John Lagasse is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, and cookbook author. A regional James Beard Award winner, he is perhaps most notable for his Food Network shows Emeril Live and Essence of Emeril as well as catchphrases such as “Kick it up a notch!” and...
. Martha Stewart will also produce prime-time specials for the network. The syndicated television series and movies continue to air outside of the five hour weekday block, which airs from 10:00AM-3:00PM EDT.
Original movies
See: List of Hallmark Channel 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, the channel had a steady one-movie-a-month, or 12-a-year, production schedule and were mainly produced by
RHI EntertainmentRHI Entertainment , formerly known as Hallmark Entertainment, is an American producer of television movies and miniseries, founded in 1979 by Robert Halmi Jr. and Robert Halmi Sr. as Robert Halmi Incorporated....
. 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. The network released 35 original movies for the 2009-2010 season. Hallmark Channel is releasing 25 new movies for the 2011 year.
Holiday Countdowns
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 it ends with the Tournament of Roses Parade on the first or second day of January. Thanksgiving and New Years will coincide with the countdown during the season.
High definition
Hallmark Channel HD, a
1080i1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels...
high definitionHigh-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
simulcast of Hallmark Channel, launched on February 1, 2010. DirecTV added the HD channel to their lineup on June 23, 2010.
Consumer website
On November 19, 2007, the network refreshed its consumer website,
www.hallmarkchannel.com, offering users microsites dedicated to original programming and marketing initiatives, such as sweepstakes and special 'events' like "Crime Time Sunday". Some of the microsites have games centered around the movie's theme.
They also began to stream their award-winning original series,
Adoption, marking the first time the network has scheduled a full-length program online.
On Location
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. The series had a soft launch in July 2007 with the title "Inside Story" and a different host for
Avenging AngelAvenging Angel is a television movie that originally aired on Hallmark Channel on July 7, 2007, as part of the network's "Rough 'N' Ready Roundup" for the July 4th holiday...
,
Charlie & MeCharlie & Me is a made-for-tv movie that premiered on Hallmark Channel on January 5, 2008. Filmed on location in Ontario, Canada, the movie stars Tom Bosley as the title character and Jordy Benattar as his granddaughter.-Plot:...
,
The Good WitchThe Good Witch is a made-for-TV movie that aired on the Hallmark Channel on January 19, 2008. It starred Catherine Bell as Cassandra Nightingale and Chris Potter as Sheriff Jake Russell...
,
Daniel's Daughter, and
The NoteThe Note is a television movie directed by Douglas Barr and starring Genie Francis and Ted McGinley. The movie aired on Hallmark Channel in December 2007. It is based on the novel by Angela Hunt. It was filmed on location in Hamilton, Ontario....
.
In 2009, the online show was revamped again, removing the on-camera host altogether.
Love Takes WingLove Takes Wing is a Christian drama and the seventh TV movie based on a series of books by Janette Oke. It aired on Hallmark Channel on April 4, 2009...
is the last title featured in an "On Location" with an on-camera host. All titles following do not have an on-camera host.
Online movie shop
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. The shop is powered by the
AmazonAmazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
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.
Advertising
In mid-June of 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 OmahaMutual of Omaha is a Fortune 500 mutual insurance and financial services company based in Omaha, Nebraska. The company was founded in 1909 as Mutual Benefit Health and Accident Association.- History :...
as the first buyer.
Hallmark Channel around the world
The name Hallmark is also used for various cable channels worldwide. Hallmark Channel across the world is owned by
NBC UniversalNBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
and is run by different entities that have access to the
HallmarkHallmark Cards is a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce C. Hall, Hallmark is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts....
name and brand. They also have different programming and standards than Hallmark Channel USA.
AT&T U-verse carriage dispute
AT&T U-verse dropped Hallmark Channel and sister channel Hallmark Movie Channel on September 1, 2010 due to a carriage dispute.
See also
List of Hallmark Channel Original Films
- Hallmark Hall of Fame
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The second longest-running television program in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2011...
Hallmark Channel Mystery Wheel
External links