English Entertainment
Hallmark parent Crown Media achieves new landmarks
The Hallmark channel is gallopping ahead if one goes by the annual numbers released by its parent Crown Media Holdings. Crown claims that its subscribers globally increased 35 per cent to 91.5 million worldwide as of 31 March 2002, from 67.6 million subscribers at the same time in 2001. Some 44.9 million of these subscribers are from the US while 46.6 million of them are spread over 110 countries.
Crown Media’s gross revenues increased to $41.4 million in the first quarter of 2002, a 68 per cent increase from $24.7 million in the first quarter of 2001 while net revenue in the same period increased 71 per cent to $39.5 million, from $23.0 million in the prior year’s quarter. The difference in gross and net revenues is due to the netting of subscriber acquisition costs and other fees against revenue.
Crown says the channel is in fine fettle in terms of viewership too. During the first quarter of 2002, it achieved its highest-rated quarter in network history in the US, according to Nielsen Media Research, averaging a 0.6 primetime household rating. This represented a 50 per cent increase from the fourth quarter of 2001. The Hallmark Channel US has shown the most growth in primetime household delivery among all advertising-supported cable networks since its launch on 5 August 2001, the company says.
It is taking steps to improve the viewership numbers further: in March 2002, it announced that it would commission 24 movies to be produced by Hallmark Entertainment, which will premier on the channel before Christmas 2002. These films cover a wide array of genres, including dramas, mysteries, and westerns.
Additionally, it announced recently that it had struck a long-term programming agreement with Paramount Domestic Television under which which the network secured the rights to dozens of Paramount’s top films, comedies, dramas and westerns, and series, including Perry Mason, Hogan’s Heroes, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Rawhide.
Finally, Crown Media in the US has purchased an original one-hour non-scripted reality series, Adoption, portraying real-life experiences of people who have been involved in the process of trying to adopt a child. Produced exclusively for the Hallmark Channel US by Hallmark Entertainment, the series is to premier early next month.
Says a jubiliant Crown Media Holdings CEO David Evans: “We are very pleased with the continued success of the Hallmark Channel, as is evident by increased ratings performance both in the US and abroad.”
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
