Channel Profile: Hallmark Channel

PREMIUM: Hallmark will commission 24 movies this year and increase that to 26 next year, according to Barbara Fisher, the senior VP of original programming for Hallmark Channels.

"TV movies were our entrée into original programming,” says Fisher. “It’s still a very popular genre that was slowly slipping away on the broadcast networks. Our sense was there was still an audience for them. We serve an audience that enjoys more family-oriented programming, something they’re seeing less and less on cable and broadcast [television]. TV movies fit well into that because we can tell very emotional stories, we can be heartfelt, we can be optimistic, so we decided to target that genre. People tell us all the time, ‘Please, more and more movies.’ ”

Fisher works closely with the producers, including Larry Levinson Productions and RHI Entertainment, but the movies aren’t co-productions—Hallmark pays a license fee and the producers retain ownership. Budgets for the Hallmark original movie are generally in the $2 million to $2.5 million range, Fisher says. In addition, the network acquires several completed movies each year. 

Hallmark surrounds its movies with off-net series and, in the daytime, The Martha Stewart Show and other talk and cooking shows, but Fisher thinks original scripted series are a natural progression from its movies.

“Eventually we’d like to be in both areas,” she says. “We feel there is an audience out there. The same way they respond to the movies, logic would tell you that they would respond to those kinds of stories in series, too. We want to continue with the movies, though. We want to grow as a network, which is why we’re in the daytime business now. For us it’s continuing a tradition that works. But I think scripted series would also work really well on our network. They’re probably in the future for us.”

The movies that Hallmark commissions are mostly the result of pitches from writers and producers, although the network comes up with many of its own film ideas, Fisher says.

Fisher looks for subject matter that conforms to the network’s strategy of scheduling movies around seasons and holidays. “We look at every month and we try to reflect each month, either with a holiday, something seasonal or a special occasion,” Fisher says. “As soon as November hits we do a Thanksgiving movie. In October we did a movie called Growing the Big One, which is a romance with Shannen Doherty. It’s set in a town that has a pumpkin-growing contest. In May we’re going to do a Mothers’ Day movie, in June a Fathers’ Day movie. In the summer we might do a wedding. In the summer of 2011 we have A Kiss at Pine Lake, which is a romance set at a summer camp. In February we always do romances for Valentine’s Day.”

Hallmark Channel used to be known for its westerns and mysteries, but when it shifted over to the holiday and seasonal approach, those titles were moved to its Hallmark Movie Channel. “We’re doing very different programming on the movie channel,” Fisher says. “The Hallmark Channel movies tend to be lighter, celebratory, where we can do more dramas, period westerns and suspense mysteries on the movie channel. Because it’s about movies, you should have a variety of genres on it. We had a drama called After the Fall in October. We did a movie called The Wild Girl before that, which was a western. Next year we have a great Luke Perry western that we’ve just completed called Goodnight for Justice.”