Crown Media, NICC Reach Settlement

STUDIO CITY, January 3: Crown Media Holdings, the parent
company of the Hallmark Channel in the U.S., has reached an agreement with the
National Interfaith Cable Coalition (NICC) to settle outstanding claims
relating to NICC’s equity interest in Crown Media and a now-expired program
production and broadcast deal.

Under the settlement, Hallmark Channel will continue to
broadcast a Sunday morning block of Faith & Values programming. However,
this has been reduced to two hours from six hours. Hallmark will no longer
carry the weekday morning one-hour block from Faith & Values, New
Morning. In addition, NICC will relinquish
its right to compel Crown Media to purchase the more than 4 million shares of
the company’s common stock that NICC owns. It has also relinquished its seat on
the Crown Media Board of Directors.

—By Mansha Daswani