The Hallmark Channel has renewed its carriage deal with Time Warner Cable with a license-fee increase that could funnel more than $8 million into Hallmark's coffers in the first year.
The multiyear contract calls for increases that will swell the annual license fee ponied up by Time Warner to more than $10 million by the end of the term. Hallmark reaches only about 12 million of TW's total of 14.6 million subscribers because some systems place the network on digital basic, making it unavailable to analog customers.
The carriage deal also gives the spinoff Hallmark Movie Channel the right to pitch each individual TW system on the virtues of buying a 24/7 movie service stuffed with nothing but family titles, many of them from the Disney and Hallmark libraries. Hallmark Movie Channel is still a fledgling, reaching only about 10 million homes.
The TW Cable deal follows last November's renewal by Hallmark of its carriage deal with Comcast.
"It was important for us to get the Time Warner deal done because it's the largest and most important cable provider in Manhattan, and it also reaches parts of Los Angeles," said Henry Schleiff, president and CEO of Hallmark's Crown Media parent.
Schleiff said one of Hallmark's main virtues is that it has a greater percentage of older viewers than almost any other ad-supported cable network. "Cable operators tell us that they're tired of every cable network trying to become hipper and cooler in order to appeal to the 18- to 49-year-olds," he said. "But many of these viewers are deserting TV for the Internet. It's the older demos that are watching television, and they're the ones who pay the monthly cable bills."
The multiyear contract calls for increases that will swell the annual license fee ponied up by Time Warner to more than $10 million by the end of the term. Hallmark reaches only about 12 million of TW's total of 14.6 million subscribers because some systems place the network on digital basic, making it unavailable to analog customers.
The carriage deal also gives the spinoff Hallmark Movie Channel the right to pitch each individual TW system on the virtues of buying a 24/7 movie service stuffed with nothing but family titles, many of them from the Disney and Hallmark libraries. Hallmark Movie Channel is still a fledgling, reaching only about 10 million homes.
The TW Cable deal follows last November's renewal by Hallmark of its carriage deal with Comcast.
"It was important for us to get the Time Warner deal done because it's the largest and most important cable provider in Manhattan, and it also reaches parts of Los Angeles," said Henry Schleiff, president and CEO of Hallmark's Crown Media parent.
Schleiff said one of Hallmark's main virtues is that it has a greater percentage of older viewers than almost any other ad-supported cable network. "Cable operators tell us that they're tired of every cable network trying to become hipper and cooler in order to appeal to the 18- to 49-year-olds," he said. "But many of these viewers are deserting TV for the Internet. It's the older demos that are watching television, and they're the ones who pay the monthly cable bills."
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