Hallmark Channel
The Hallmark Channel is an American cable and satellite television network owned by Crown Media Holdings, which is majority owned by Hallmark Cards. The channel's programming is primarily targeted at families, and features a mix of Made for TV Movies and Miniseries, original and acquired television series, and lifestyle programs.
The Hallmark Channel traces its history to the launch of two separate religious cable channels, the American Christian Television System (ACTS) and the Vision Interfaith Satellite Network (VISN). The two networks began alternating time on a shared transponder slot on the Galaxy III satellite in 1992. In 1993, they effectively merged into a single network, which was renamed as the Faith and Values Channel. It began adding a few secular programs during this time, such as exercise shows, health and cooking shows, and family-oriented drama series and movies. In 1995, cable conglomerate Tele-Communications Inc. acquired a 49% ownership stake in the Faith and Values Channel, and took over operational control of the network. It added more secular programming to the network and reduced religious programming to about 10 hours a day. In 1996, the network was rebranded as the Odyssey Network (although on-air promotions often referred to the network simply as "Odyssey"), and launched a website, Odysseyfamily.com, which was used to provide program listings for the network.
Crown Media Holdings and The Jim Henson Company bought majority stakes in Odyssey in November 1998; under the new venture, Odyssey underwent a major programming revamp on April 4, 1999, decreasing the amount of religious programs on the network down to four hours a day. The channel began to focus more on family-targeted entertainment programming including some classic sitcoms, children's programs and additional family-oriented movies. Henson sold its interest in the channel to Crown Media Holdings in 2000. Odyssey then dropped much of its children's programs and relegated religious programming to a few hours on Sundays.
On August 5, 2001, the channel underwent yet another rebranding, relaunching as the Hallmark Channel. The restructured network completely dropped religious programming, but continued to focus on family-oriented sitcoms and drama series, dramatic films and other general entertainment programs. The National Interfaith Cable Coalition continued to own about 5% of the channel, and continues to produce some program content for Hallmark Channel.
Programming
Hallmark Channel's programming consists of classic and some recent television series, and original Made for TV Movies. It also airs television movies and miniseries from the Hallmark Hall of Fame anthology series. Many of the Hallmark Hall of Fame films broadcast by the network were originally broadcast during its CBS run; the network currently airs Hall of Fame films on a two-week delay from their original broadcast on ABC (which began airing the anthology series in April 2011).
Original programs broadcast on the network include the daytime talk show Home and Family (which originated on ABC Family, as "The Family Channel", in April 1996) and When Calls the Heart. The network's original programming originally consisted mainly of lifestyle programs and made-for-TV movies; Hallmark Channel debuted its first original scripted series in July 2013, with the premiere of Cedar Cove.