Hallmark Channel

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Infobox radio tower icon
Station logo
TV channel
reception electric wire
Image resolution ( Entry missing )
Start of transmission 1984 (as ACTS)
July 1, 1988 (as VISN)
1992 (as VISN / ACTS)
1993 (as Faith & Values ​​Channel)
1996 (as Odyssey Network)
August 5, 2001 (as Hallmark Channel)
Seat Studio City, Los Angeles
owner Crown Media Holdings
( Hallmark Cards )
List of TV channels
Website

Hallmark Channel is a US television broadcaster that is a cable TV station owned by Crown Media Holdings , a division of Hallmark Cards . The program, aimed at the whole family, consists of in-house and third-party productions, including television series , films , television films , mini-series and lifestyle shows . The Hallmark Channel has several international branches and the sister station Hallmark Movies & Mysteries .

As of August 2013, approximately 85,897,000 households (75.22% of households with a television) were able to receive the Hallmark Channel in the United States.

history

Beginnings of the Hallmark Channel

The history of the Hallmark Channel goes back to the market launch of a joint network of the two separate, religiously oriented cable channels American Christian Television (ACTS) and Vision Interfaith Satellite Network (VISN) in the last quarter of 1992, which from now on share a common satellite transponder slot on the Satellite Galaxy III and thus also shared a common broadcasting slot, which enabled considerable savings. Under the agreement that regulated the transmission times, the joint network was founded under the name VISN / ACTS. Each of the networks had been given a certain amount of time in which to broadcast. Both networks kept their own logos.

VISN started on July 1, 1988, and was founded by the National Interfaith Cable Coalition in collaboration with several cable providers. Approximately 16 hours a day were broadcast, showing only religious programs initiated by Protestant denominations such as the United Methodist Church , the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ . Programs from the Roman Catholic Church , The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , Jews, and Islam also found their way into the program. VISN broadcast these during the morning and evening hours. ACTS began operations in 1984 and was owned by the Southern Baptist Convention . ACTS broadcast programs on evangelicalism , fundamentalism and non-charismatic Christian groups such as the SBC, the Christian Reformed Church in North America and the Association of Regular Baptist Churches, as well as programs from well-known Protestants such as Jerry Falwell , Charles Stanley and D James Kennedy , out. In addition, both stations showed religious children's programs, some of which thematically overlapped, for example Sunshine Factory , Joy Junction , Davey and Goliath and Jot .

In 1993 the station was renamed the Faith and Values ​​Channel . A small number of secular programs, fitness and cooking shows, family-oriented drama series and films were included in the program. In 1995 Tele-Communications Inc. acquired a 49% stake in the Faith and Values ​​Channel and took over management of the station. From now on, more secular programs have been added and the religious program has been reduced to about 10 hours per day. In 1996 the station was renamed Odyssey Network . The station was often only called Odyssey in on-air campaigns . They also launched a website, Odysseyfamily.com, which was used to publish program listings for the station.

In November 1998, Crown Media Holdings and The Jim Henson Company bought controlling interests in the Odyssey Network . On April 4, 1999, the station's program was rebuilt under the leadership of the new owner. The religious program was again reduced to up to four hours per day and there was a greater focus on family-related entertainment, including some classic sitcoms , children's programs and additional films. In 2000, Henson sold its stake in the station to Crown Media Holdings. As a result, a large part of the children's programs and religious programs were no longer offered. These only found their place in the program in a few hours on Sunday.

History as the Hallmark Channel

Central administration in the district of Studio City in Los Angeles

On August 5, 2001, it was re-established and re-released under the name Hallmark Channel . The station was restructured and, as a result, the religiously oriented program was removed from the offer and increasingly focused on family entertainment such as sitcoms , dramas and other entertainment formats. The National Interfaith Cable Coalition continued to own approximately 5% of the station and continued to produce content for the station. In Asia, the Kermit Channel, acquired by Crown Media, has now been republished under the Hallmark Channel brand, granting it a three-hour program block in the network.

In 2002, the Hallmark Channel broadcast its weekday morning show New Morning , which was supplemented in 2005 by a version of the show broadcast on Sundays by Naomi Judd under the title Naomi New Morning . It was withdrawn from the program in spring 2007.

David Evans served as CEO of the emerging network until he stepped down in May 2006 . Until the appointment of a new CEO, former Court TV chairman Henry Schleiff, the network remained without a formal managing director until October 2006. Schleiff monitors all divisions of the network.

In January 2007, the crown of the Hallmark logo was removed, although it was still partially seen in the broadcast, in advertisements and in other language versions of the channel. On May 27, 2007, the national, public initiative Watch With Me started with the aim of encouraging families to watch TV together to "spend more time together".

In 2008, the Hallmark Channel announced the start of a branding campaign that introduced a predominantly gold-colored logo and the new Make Yourself At Home slogan . In February 2008, as part of the 2008 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton acquired a one-hour prime - time slot that aired on long term commercials on February 4th, the day before the Super Tuesday primaries in the US .

Henry Schleiff resigned as CEO of the Hallmark Channel on May 6, 2009. The former vice president of advertising, William J. Abbott, was then promoted to managing director. Both parties said it was a friendly resignation. In late May, Crown Media Holdings announced it was ready to sell the channel because it owed a billion euros. After a month without a future buyer, Crown Media shut down the network and justified this with the lack of interest in the channel. In June 2009 Abbott decided that Crown Media wanted to make the Hallmark Channel more interesting for younger viewers, but also wanted to reach the previous audience, the older viewers , and that they would now offer "lighter fare" such as comedies. Crown Media wants to refinance the debt next year.

In mid-June 2009, the network announced that they would be introducing 30-second, individual commercials for a single advertiser, the so-called "Fast Breaks". These would cost about twice as much as a regular 30-second commercial broadcast on the Hallmark Channel. The first buyer of one of these spots was the Mutual of Omaha insurance company .

In January 2010, the on-air design for HD transmission was revised by introducing a mainly lavender color scheme and the introduction of the new slogan Celebrate Life's Moments . In the same month the Hallmark Channel celebrated the 100th birthday of the Hallmark brand.

Since February 1, 2010, the Hallmark Channel can also be received in HD. On June 23, 2010, the television satellite operator DirecTV added the HD version of the channel to its offer.

program

The Hallmark Channel's program consists of TV films, classic and ongoing TV series. Mini-series of the Hallmark Hall of Fame series are also shown. Many of the films in this series are made from material originally broadcast on CBS . The series is currently being broadcast over the network two weeks after it was first broadcast on the ABC channel. ABC began broadcasting the series in April 2011.

Programs premiering on the channel include the talk show The Home and Family Show , which originated on ABC Family in April 1996, and Janette Oke: The Coal Valley Saga , based on the novels by Janette Oke . Cedar Cove was the first series written specifically for the Hallmark Channel based on novels by Debbie Macomber and premiered in July 2013.

On February 2, 2014, the Kitten Bowl event first aired during Super Bowl XLVIII . It was first developed by Beth Stern as a counterattack program for the Super Bowl . It aired halfway through the Super Bowl and is similar to the Puppy Bowl , which appeared nine years earlier on Animal Planet .

Series

The station's series program consists for the most part of repetitions of older series, but also newer series such as The Middle from other stations, most of which come from CBS , can be found in the program. Since 2013, the station has also been producing its own series such as Cedar Cove - Das Gesetz des Herzens or When Calls the Heart . Further series are being planned.

Movies

In addition to third-party productions, a large number of self-produced films are shown on the Hallmark Channel, as well as films from the sister station Hallmark Movie Channel. Well-known examples of self-produced films on the Hallmark Channel would be Pandemic - Tödliche Erreger or A Princess for Christmas .

Shows

Since October 1, 2012, the channel has been broadcasting the talk show Home and Family under the moderation of Cristina Ferrare and Mark Steines on weekdays at 10 a.m. and sometimes at 9 a.m.

Holiday program

From the first weekend in November to the first of January, the Hallmark Channel broadcasts a seasonal program block under the name Countdown to Christmas , which consists of a mix of holiday films, specials and holiday-based original programming. From the first half of February until Valentine's Day , a program block is broadcast that consists mainly of romances. In addition, special films and specials for Mother 's Day and Father's Day will be shown between May and June and a program tailored for Halloween (including The Good Witch series of films ) will be shown during October.

International offshoots

The name Hallmark is also used for various cable channels around the world. The international branches of the Hallmark Channel, for example in Italy , Asia , Australia and Russia, are owned by NBCUniversal . These use the Hallmark brand and name , but have different programs and standards than the Hallmark Channel in the US.

Web presence

On November 19, 2007, the network updated its website.

On location

On July 21, 2008, the website was expanded to include an exclusive online series entitled On Location , which mainly features interviews and behind-the-scenes material from films produced for the Hallmark Channel. These can be found on the respective microsite of a film. In July 2007, the series had its soft launch as Inside Story and included material from Avenging Angel Charlie & Me , The Good Witch , Daniel's Daughter , and The Note . The program was renewed in 2009 and the "on-camera" scenes were discontinued.

Online movie shop

On January 29, 2009, Crown Media announced the development of an online movie shop with products such as DVDs and movie-related products from the Hallmark library. The shop is operated by an Amazon partner program. Since its start in mid-2008, the shop has more than 10,000 items available. The network earns a commission with every item sold.

Slogans

  • "Make Yourself at Home" (2001-2008)
  • "The Heart Of TV" (since 2008)

Controversy

Conflict with AT&T

The Hallmark Channel and the Hallmark Movie Channel operated by the Hallmark Channel were removed from the offer of the AT&T service AT&T U-verse on September 1, 2010 and could therefore no longer be received via it. AT&T justified this with the fact that the costs they have to bear for the broadcasting of the station are not in proportion to the popularity of the Hallmark Channel.

Censorship of programs

In July 2011, blogger Donna Cavanagh criticized the channel's content guidelines, describing them as "censorship at its worst". Due to the family-oriented formats, the channel and its content do not comply with general television guidelines, standards and practices. Exactly it refers to profanity and epithets like "ass", "hooker" or "butt", which have either been muted by the Hallmark Channel or removed entirely from a certain program . In an official statement, a spokesman for the company justified this as follows: "Crown Media Networks is committed to a family-friendly program. [...] There are words and phrases that are often used by other channels and networks, but that reflect Hallmark Channel's corporate philosophy are considered unacceptable. ("Crown Media Networks is committed to family friendly programming. [...] There are words and phrases commonly used on other cable channels and broadcast networks that Hallmark Channel's S&P guidelines deem unacceptable.")

Cavanagh accused the network of hypocrisy because, on the one hand, they view such expressions as offensive, but on the other hand they also broadcast sitcoms like Frasier and Golden Girls , which often deal with sexual content, including references to sexual permissiveness.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of How Many Homes Each Cable Networks Is In - Cable Network Coverage Estimates As Of August 2013. Zap2it, August 23, 2013, accessed May 28, 2014 .
  2. ↑ VISN, ACTS Sign Agreement To Share Single Cable Signal . In: National Religious Broadcasters (ed.): Religious Broadcasting . tape 24 , no. 9 , October 1992, ISSN  0034-4079 , p. 32 (English).
  3. ^ Joe Westbury: FamilyNet building sale closes TV era. (No longer available online.) Baptist Press, October 8, 2008, archived from the original October 9, 2008 ; accessed on May 30, 2014 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bpnews.net
  4. ↑ Robert E. Bcozkiewicz: New TV Network May Crowd the Market . In: Christianity Today . Vol. 32, No. 12 , August 2, 1988, ISSN  0009-5753 , pp. 55-56 (English).
  5. ↑ Carnegie Samuel Calian: Redeeming the wasteland? Christian TV increasingly uses entertainment to spread its message. In: Christianity Today . Vol. 39, No. 11 , October 2, 1995, ISSN  0009-5753 , pp. 92-103 (English).
  6. ^ A b c Hallmark Channel Press site: Company Milestones. (No longer available online.) In: Hallmarkchannelpress.com. Archived from the original on December 4, 2012 ; Retrieved May 28, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hallmarkchannelpress.com
  7. ↑ Kevin Downey: Spiritual Syndicator's Gamble . In: Broadcasting & Cable . February 11, 2008, p. 20 (English).
  8. ^ Muppet Central News - Kermit Channel goes off the air. In: Muppetcentral.com. June 4, 2001, Retrieved May 28, 2014 .
  9. ^ Hallmark Exec folding cards. In: Encyclopedia.com: Daily Variety. Retrieved June 27, 2014 .
  10. ^ Hallmark Channel Press site: Bio Page ( Memento from August 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ^ Unicef ​​contributor's profile. Unicefusa.org, accessed November 27, 2012 .
  12. ↑ Clinton Buys Block on Hallmark. (No longer available online.) Mediaweek, archived from the original on February 5, 2008 ; accessed on January 31, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mediaweek.com
  13. ^ Crown Media Holdings President and CEO Henry Schleiff To Leave Hallmark Channel. Hallmark Channel Press Site, May 6, 2009, accessed June 27, 2014 .
  14. ^ A b Claire Atkinson: Hallmark: Change is in the Cards. In: Broadcasting Cable.com. June 20, 2009, accessed June 27, 2014 .
  15. ^ Hallmark Channel goes HD just in the nick of time Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved May 28, 2014
  16. ↑ Upcoming HD channels DirecTV.com
  17. ^ "Home and Family" on Hallmark Channel. (No longer available online.) Hallmark Channel, archived from the original on May 30, 2014 ; Retrieved May 29, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hallmarkchannel.com
  18. ↑ Avenging Angel Microsite ( Memento of November 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  19. ↑ Charlie & Me
  20. ↑ The Good Witch Microsite ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hallmarkchannel.com
  21. ^ Daniel's Daughter Microsite
  22. ↑ The Note IMDb
  23. ↑ Love Takes Wing Microsite ( Memento of the original from June 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hallmarkchannel.com
  24. ^ Hallmark Channel Online Shop ( Memento from May 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  25. ↑ Milestones - Hallmark Channel Press Release 1/29/09. In: Hallmark Channel press page. Retrieved June 27, 2014 .
  26. ^ Hallmark Channels Go Dark On AT&T U-verse , Multichannel News , September 1, 2010.
  27. ^ Cavanagh, Donna (July 10, 2011). "Bleepin 'Censorship on the Bleepin' Hallmark Channel" . The Student Operated Press.