Hallmark Channel Pumps the Power of Predictability
By Ed Martin TV / Video Download Archives
I can’t remember a time when network chiefs didn’t break out in hives at the suggestion that their programming was in any way formulaic or routine. In fact, the late, great Brandon Tartikoff’s condemnation in the early Nineties of “cookie-cutter” television content is still menacingly referenced by media executives, especially around the time of the broadcasters’ annual Upfront presentations.
And so it was that opening remarks made by Crown Media U.S. president and chief executive officer Henry Schleiff sent a ripple around the room yesterday at Hallmark Channel’s annual Upfront press gathering, during which he championed the “predictability” of Hallmark Channel and its sister network, Hallmark Movie Channel. In fact, the P-word was the buzz word at yesterday’s event, a lavish luncheon at the Manhattan restaurant Primehouse. It seems that said “predictability” – especially as manifested in its expanding slate of feel-good original movies – is the not-so-hidden secret to Hallmark’s ongoing success, especially during these difficult economic times.
“We’re offering predictability in an unpredictable world,” Schleiff declared, standing at the head of the table like a proud patriarch in one of the restaurant’s private dining rooms. “We’re proud in this environment that our programming so clearly shouts our brand.
“After a long day of looking for work people are looking for predictability!” he continued. “One day you have money, the next day your money is gone! One day you eat peanut butter, and the next day you are gone! There is no predictability in this world!”
Speaking about the content of Hallmark Channel’s original movies, Schleiff explained that viewers know “the good-looking woman in the opening scene is not going to marry the evil lawyer” at the end. Paraphrasing feedback from Hallmark’s loyal audience, Schleiff said (in his best Hallmark viewer voice), “I knew in the first scene she was going to marry that good-looking gentleman!” Plainly, were Hallmark’s movies to dramatically deviate from what has become the network’s norm there would be all kinds of trouble.
“How we convey our message most clearly is with our investment in original movies,” Schleiff said, noting that Hallmark Channel has scheduled a record 35 original movies for the 2009-10 season. He added that the network’s movies “repeat fabulously” on the Friday nights following their Saturday night premieres. (During the first quarter of 2009, the network’s original movie ratings are averaging a 2.4 household rating with 3.8 million total viewers. Year to year, ratings among adults 25-54 and women 25-54 are up 26 percent and 30 percent, respectively.)
Schleiff continued to pump up the power of the P-word. “We will continue to debut our movies at 9 p.m. on Saturdays,” he noted, calling attention to the sorry state of television overall on Saturday nights, even with hundreds of channels available to cable and satellite subscribers. “How often do you say [there is nothing to watch] as you surf around on Saturday nights?” he asked the television journalists in the room. Several of them nodded in agreement.
He also noted the relatively swift success that Hallmark Channel has enjoyed with advertisers. “Advertising is a business of incumbency,” he explained. “We’ve only been around for eight years. We were the home of [ads for the haircutting device] Flowbee for the first year!” he added with a laugh.
Another hot topic at the lunch – one that dared to suggest that Hallmark is trying something new and somewhat unpredictable – was the announcement that Hallmark Movie Channel has formed a partnership with the Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film & TV at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts to provide an on-air showcase for short live-action and animated films created by student and alumni filmmakers. “Anything that celebrates the human spirit,” Schleiff said. A panel of judges will select the productions that will be scheduled on the network under the banner Film Positive starting in October. Tisch School of the Arts alumnus Alec Baldwin is the first confirmed panel member. Hallmark will offer advertisers sponsorships attached to this project.
Schleiff told me that he is looking at taking the Hallmark brand and “literally going out and working with studios to do higher budget movies that would go directly to DVD or into movie theaters” before running on one of the Hallmark channels. He cited the recent Jennifer Aniston-Owen Wilson comedy Marley & Me as a “perfect example” of what these movies could be. “Marley did just fine without us,” he said, but “with the Hallmark name on it” he thinks “it would have done even better. I love the idea of Hallmark licensing its name to theatrical movies.”
Crown Media U.S. Executive Vice President of Programming David Kenin, meanwhile, revealed that the script has been delivered for a second installment in what Hallmark Channel executives hope will be a long-running movie franchise featuring the crime-solving domestic arts maven portrayed by Jane Seymour in the network’s 2008 hit Dear Prudence. Hallmark is also exploring a third movie featuring Genie Francis as romance columnist Peyton MacGruder, the character she played in the 2007 drama The Note and its 2009 sequel, The Note II: Taking a Chance on Love,both big successes. The network is also working on its first original musical.
Ed Martin
Ed Martin is the chief television and content critic for MediaVillage. He has written about television and internet programming for several Myers publications since 2000, including The Myers Report, The Myers Programming Report, MediaBizBloggers a…
