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Hallmark Channel

Hallmark Channel is an American cable television network owned by Hallmark Media, a subsidiary of Hallmark Cards. The channel broadcasts family-oriented general entertainment programming, including television series and made-for-TV movies.

This article is about the American TV channel. For the former channels outside of the U.S., see Hallmark Channel (international).

Country

United States

Nationwide

English
Spanish

1080i HDTV
(downscaled to letterboxed 480i for the SDTV feed)

September 1992 (1992-09)

  • VISN/ACTS (1992–1993)
  • Faith & Values Channel (1993–1996)
  • Odyssey Network (1996–2001)

The channel has its origins in the religious broadcasters American Christian Television System (ACTS) and the Vision Interfaith Satellite Network (VISN). The two services timeshared on a single satellite signal, which was later rebranded as The Faith & Values Channel in 1993. After Liberty Media acquired a 49% stake in the channel in 1996, it relaunched as the Odyssey Network. As Odyssey, the channel gradually phased out religious programming in favor of family-oriented films and television series—a pivot that intensified after Hallmark Entertainment and The Jim Henson Company acquired major stakes in the channel in 1998.


In 2001, after a corporate reorganization, Odyssey rebranded as Hallmark Channel. By the 2010s, Hallmark Channel had established a focus on made-for-TV movies—particularly romance films and comedies—themed around specific seasons and holidays throughout the year. The strategy sought to create synergies with Hallmark's core greeting card business, and build upon the strength of the "Countdown to Christmas" programming event it first introduced in 2009.


As of February 2015, Hallmark Channel was available to approximately 85,439,000 pay television households (73.4% of households with television) in the United States.[1]

: Originally only an encore or library home for the Hallmark Hall of Fame anthology film series, the series moved its original showings to the channel in 2014.[48]

Hallmark Hall of Fame

Mystery Movie (also Hallmark Channel Mystery Wheel): The channel began a Sunday night mystery movie wheel series called Mystery Movie in 2004.[75] This wheel series consisted of four individual movie series of four films that would also be later shown on Hallmark Movie Channel.[75] Two of the film series were Mystery Woman and Jane Doe. A successor series, Original Mystery Wheel, was established in 2015 on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel.[29]

[29]

Walden Family Theater (2013) On March 15, 2013, the channel started its family friendly Friday night movie series, Walden Family Theater in partnership with , Arc Entertainment, Procter & Gamble and Walmart. P&G and Walmart were sponsoring partners with Walmart selling the movies DVD in store the Tuesday after airing, while Arc and Walden were producing partners. The first movie was the world premiere of Return to Nim's Island, one of six new films produced for the series. Space Warriors was shown later in the premier season, with additional films drawn from Hallmark's library of films.[45] The series' second season was launched on September 6, 2013, with the premiere of the film, Dear Dumb Diary based upon the Scholastic book, with the Civil Rights era drama The Watsons Go to Birmingham premiering next.[76]

Walden Media

List of Hallmark Hall of Fame episodes

Official website