(Above: Composite picture of the average Hallmark Channel viewer.)
Various dramas have swirled around Hallmark Channel, and I'm not talking about “The Christmas Card” and “Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus.”
There has been turmoil in the executive suites of the cable network named for Hallmark Cards, which owns it through a separate publicly-traded company, Crown Media Holdings. Mired in debt, the channel was put on, later taken off, the auction block. Some industry people have wondered out loud if there will even be a Hallmark Channel a few years from now.
On the other hand, Hallmark Channel just finished the biggest quarter in its history, with a prime-time Nielsen rating higher than that of all other cable networks save four -- higher than Fox News, Lifetime, Nick at Nite, and much higher than Bravo, a channel we go on about endlessly in these pages.
With a new chief executive, Henry Schleiff, on board at Hallmark Channel, I phoned him last week to ask what viewers can expect to see in 2007 on the air.
Sometimes it seems the TV business is one great big revolving door. Schleiff arrived from Court TV, which he ran for seven years and is credited with putting on the map through savvy marketing and edgy crime-themed programs (like the recent James Ellroy showpiece, “Murder by the Book”).
But Hallmark, as Schleiff noted, isn't Court TV. It's already well known and well liked. It's become one of the most popular channels in the cable universe. But it's not getting its due and that has hampered the growth of the channel, which was once known as Odyssey (and before that, the Faith and Values Network) before Hallmark bought a controlling interest in 2001.
“We have to do a better job, frankly, of getting the word out that we're the home of entertaining, great, fun, family-friendly movies,” said Schleiff.
To that end, the 10 p.m. reruns of “M*A*S*H” are no more. The classic sitcom will still air on Hallmark during the day, but the prime-time rights are going to TV Land. On New Year's Day there will even be a handoff, as Hallmark airs “M*A*S*H” from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the episodes' original, unshortened form, with TV Land taking over at 7.
From now on,
said Schleiff (pictured), evenings on Hallmark will be “movie-movie, followed
by a movie.” This week, for instance, begins with holiday movies,
including a repeat of “The Christmas Card,” starring Ed Asner, at 6 p.m. Monday (all times CT).
Then the rest of the week is Western-themed: “The Outsider” at 8
p.m. Tuesday, Confederate revenge fantasy “The Outlaw Josey Wales”
at 8 p.m. Thursday and the channel's premiere of “Wyatt Earp,” the
1994 film starring Kevin Costner, at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Schleiff isn't interested in developing sitcoms or dramas. Some celebrity-hosted nonfiction is in the works. Overall, said Schleiff, Hallmark Channel isn't broken, and its financial distress doesn't reflect the quality of programs airing on the channel. (Parent company Crown Media, which is owned mostly by Hallmark Cards, recently sold off its film library to Robert Halmi Sr. and Robert Halmi Jr. to pay down debt.)
Still, you get the sense Hallmark Channel is settling for a little less than the very best when it's putting a 30-year-old movie like “Josey Wales” on in prime time.
Compare that with Bravo, which now produces tons of new programming that connects with a younger audience, the kind of viewers that TV (and newspaper) advertisers want to reach. They are the tastemakers and trendsetters and if there's one thing Hallmark Channel fare isn't, it's trendy.
That may be one reason why Hallmark Channel doesn't get the same respect as other top-rated cable channels. And Aretha, you can spell respect M-O-N-E-Y. Cable operators pay for the privilege of carrying most basic cable channels. They have been Scroogelike to Hallmark Channel. It earns a small fraction of the subscriber fees for Fox News, even though Hallmark has a comparable audience. Even tiny C-SPAN, according to one study, wrings more money out of cable operators than Hallmark.
Without that extra income to supplement his advertising revenue, Schleiff knows he can't spend money on production and promotion. “We've got some work to do on the license fees,” he said.
That will be a challenge. Hallmark is a rare “indie” in the cable business, in that it's not owned by a media conglomerate, which would give it all kinds of leverage in negotiating rates. But Schleiff is betting that family-friendliness will give him enough leverage.
“Cable operators are under increasing scrutiny” from the government indecency police, said Schleiff, who notes that “salacious” fare like FX's “Nip/Tuck” have ignited angry e-mail campaigns. To the beleaguered cable provider, Hallmark can provide a shield from the more controversial fare on other channels.
“We're one of the few major networks that the family can sit down and not worry about,” said Schleiff. “I think that kind of predictability is a good thing.”
They have some pretty good films.
I especially enjoy the westerns.
Now I just wish they would get off their hindquarters and release (Uncut) onto DVD their fantastic production of "The Courtmartial of General George Armstrong Custer".
They never give me a good enough answer except that it is at the archives of the UCLA motion picture center.
Well, fine. Glad they know where it is. Now get it and release it onto DVD so we all can enjoy it.
It is remarkably well done!!!
Posted by: John | December 22, 2006 at 06:20 PM