The Hallmark Channel and its Hallmark Movie Channel offshoot have engineered a renewal of their carriage deal with DirecTV.
DirecTV renewal follows distribution deals with Comcast and Time Warner Cable in the last few months, giving the two Hallmark nets fresh long-term agreements with their three biggest customers. Comcast reaches more than 24 million subscribers, DirecTV 16.8 million and Time Warner more than 14 million.
All three deals took long periods of negotiation because Hallmark has a big disadvantage vs. its cable network competitors: It's the rare standalone net that's not part of a giant media conglom. What the industry calls the Five Families -- Disney/ABC, Time Warner/Turner, NBC Universal, Viacom/MTV and News Corp. -- can use the leverage of powerhouse bellwether networks to shoehorn lesser-visibility webs onto cable and satellite.
In the negotiations with cable ops and satcasters, Hallmark touts its family-friendly programming, its regular appearance as one of the top 10 highest-rated nets in ad-supported cable and its attraction to viewers over 50. Even though Madison Avenue prefers to steer clear of older viewers, so few networks appeal to seniors that cable operators look to Hallmark as a balance to the trend toward youth-appeal shows.
Hallmark's license fees are among the lowest of all cable nets, starting at a monthly rate of about 5¢ a subscriber, according to SNL Kagan.
About 15 million DirecTV subscribers will continue to have access to Hallmark Channel. An undisclosed, smaller number will get Hallmark Movie Channel, which will be available in both standard definition and high def.
Henry Schleiff, prexy-CEO of Hallmark's parent Crown Media Holdings, and Derek Chang, exec VP of content strategy and development for DirecTV, negotiated the deal.
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