Hallmark Media will refresh its subscription video-on-demand presence with the September launch of Hallmark Plus, the programmer said Thursday during its Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour session. 

The service, replacing Hallmark Movies Now, will cost $7.99 per month and feature a blend of entertainment and exclusive retail and product benefits, Hallmark Media said. Hallmark Plus will show the company’s first holiday-themed limited series, Holidazed and Mistletoe Murders, as well as scripted series The Chicken Sisters. 

Hallmark Plus will also feature reality competition series Finding Mr. Christmas, as well as new unscripted shows as Celebrations with Lacey Chabert, Ready, Set. Glow!, Small Town Setup and Home Where the Heart Is.  

On the retail side, subscribers will get such perks as a $5 Hallmark Gold Crown Store coupon, free unlimited eCards, rewards for shopping and surprise gifts, according to Hallmark. 

“Hallmark Plus marks a seminal moment for Hallmark,” Hallmark president and CEO Mike Perry said in a statement. “By intertwining new, rich content experiences with tangible rewards and premium Hallmark gifts, we are delivering a unique, new program that reflects our commitment to spreading joy through our deeply beloved brand touchpoints.”

It's a little late for Hallmark's always huge "Movies & Mistletoe" holiday movie onslaught, but starting Thursday, 16.5 million Vizio SmartCast users will have access to the Hallmark Movies Now app.

The SmartCast TVOS is a key piece of device support for Hallmark's $4.99 subscription service, which is also supported by Samsung and LG operating systems, and most other significant connected TV device ecosystems (you can see the service's device support list here).

Also read: Vizio: Only 7% of Viewership on Its Smart TVs Comes Via Third-Party Streaming Devices

Hallmark wants everyone to know that, while the deal with the Irvine, Calif.-based smart TV maker didn't come in time for its most profitable programming event of the year, wedding season is coming up in January with a film slate that includes The Wedding Veil, The Wedding Veil Unveiled, and The Wedding Veil Legacy, as well as The Perfect Pairing, and Girlfriendship.

“We’re proud to make our signature, in-demand brand of original content available to VIZIO Smart TV customers,” said Lauri McGarrigan, senior VP of business development, content distribution for Hallmark Media. “The Hallmark Movies Now platform provides hundreds of hours of feel-good Hallmark content, with new, curated offerings each month that VIZIO Smart TV owners are sure to enjoy.” ■

Crown Media sees a market in India for sappy romantic dramas frequently packaged around American country music stars. 

The company's Hallmark Movies Now subscription streaming service will now be offered by local entertainment review and recommendation platform OTTplay.

“Our partnership with OTTplay is an exciting opportunity to expand our international footprint as we bring Hallmark Movies Now to India for the first time,” said Francisco Gonzalez, senior VP of international distribution for Crown Media. “Indian audiences now have a one-stop destination to access a curated mix of signature Hallmark content.”

Also: Netflix Sees Green Shoots in India

The Hallmark-branded niche SVOD service passed the 1 million subscriber mark domestically back in fall 2020, and Crown hasn't seemed to offer an update since that time.

Regardless as to how customer growth is going, Crown Media seems intent on competing in the huge, largely unsaturated Subcontinental market, which has 1.38 billion potential customers, many of whom haven't yet started streaming video.

 “Through OTTplay Premium subscriptions, our aim is to take a leap in our journey of democratizing the OTT watching experience, and bring some of the best global content out there to the screens of Indian viewers," added OTTplay’s co-founder, Avinash Mudaliar. "Hallmark Movies Now's wide collection of feel-good, rom-com and family movies and dramas has a large and ready viewer base with India's love for romance and drama that spans generations and languages. We are delighted to partner with Hallmark to launch it for the first time in India for OTTplay Premium subscribers." ■

Frndly TV, the low-priced streaming TV provider featuring wholesome programming, said it is launching Hallmark Movies Now video-on-demand service as an add-on for subscribers.

Subscribers to Frndly TV, who already get three Hallmark Networks--Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and Hallmark Drama--as part of its core $5.99 a month month package, can also subscribe to Hallmark Movies Now for a supplemental charge of $5.99 month.

Frndly TV subscribers will also have an option to get Hallmark Movies & Mysteries for $59.99 annually.

“We are pleased to make Hallmark Movies Now an option for all of our customers just in time for the Holiday season,” said Michael McKenna, chief programming officer of Frndly TV. “Those customers that want even more Hallmark on-demand content can elect to purchase the add-on service, while we still keep our current affordable price structure in place for everyone.”

Hallmark Movies Now, launched in 2017, grew to more than 1 million subscribers in 2020. The commercial-free service is available on a number of platforms including Comcast’s X1, Cox’s Contour and YouTube TV.

Frndly TV ended 2020 with 440,000 subscribers. This year, it has managed to add several networks including Cinedigm’s Dove Channel, Allen Media Group’s Recipe.TV and Local Now, Sony’s Get-TV, FETV and country music channel Circle TV to its lineup without increasing its monthly charte to consumers. Frndly TV’s basic service now features 21 channels.

Crown Media has updated its Hallmark Movie Checklist app to include a countdown widget.

The countdown clock will end with the season's first Hallmark Holiday original movie Oct. 22, then reset to countdown to Christmas Day.

Tap the widget and it takes the user to the Movie Checklist app on Android and iOS devices.

The app update was unveiled during Hallmark Channel's Christmas in July programming stunt.

Also Read: Hallmark Movies: Everything You Need to Know About the Middle America-targeted Brand's Quest to Take Over Video Streaming

Crown also added an "upcoming" widget to the checklist app, which provides the entire Hallmark linear schedule--Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, and Hallmark Drama--including notations for titles that have been selected by users as their "favorites" and "want to watch."

What’s more, the app also launched an Upcoming Widget that offers the entire Hallmark linear schedule -- across Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, and Hallmark Drama -- on a user’s home screen, featuring titles that users have selected as “Favorites” and “Want to Watch.”

Hallmark Channel has developed an unbeatable formula on the way to becoming the No. 1 cable network for women 25-54. 

As broken down by The New Yorker recently, the winning recipe for Hallmark movies calls for a nine-act screenplay, starting with a “meet-cute” first act, and themed around a single, attractive—but not too young!—woman with an interesting job, such as novelist or chocolatier. 

There is, of course, the attractive male love interest, who can be anything from a fireman to a prince. He will reliably have his first kiss with our protagonist right around Act VII. As The New Yorker notes, the Hallmark Movies audience is decidedly Middle-American and Christian. Recent Hallmark movies stars, however, have included  Holly Robinson Peete and Meghan Markle. The appeal is actually pretty broad, Hallmark reps say.

(Notable: Southern Living has ranked its 20 favorite Hallmark movies of all time here.)

Hallmark movies are frequently themed around holidays like Valentines Day. But Hallmark movies win the ratings war on Christmas. In 2019, the channel and its sister network, Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, produced a 103 original movies, and 40 were themed around Christmas.

Since 2011, parent company Crown Media’s Hallmark Channel has programmed “Countdown to Christmas,” a 24-hour-day, seven-day-week slate of its original Christmas-themed Hallmark movies. As The New Yorker noted, 72 million people watched Countdown to Christmas in 2018. 

After becoming an unstoppable force on cable television, Crown Media wants to establish a beachhead for Hallmark movies in video streaming, too. 

A Very Digital Christmas?

Like a lot of media companies vested in cable, Crown Media dipped its toes into video streaming via the pay TV industry’s TV Everywhere initiative, the clumsily executed attempt to let cable, satellite and telco TV customers port their subscriptions to mobile and OTT devices. Hallmark Channel Everywhere launched in 2014.

In 2018, Crown took the plunge into direct-to-consumer SVOD, debuting Hallmark Movies Now. The service, which boasts more than 1 million subscribers, charges  $5.99 a month for full access to its programming library (including content from Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and Hallmark Hall of Fame, and original content specifically for digital). There’s currently a one-month free trial period to sample the service. Hallmark movies now supports Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Android OTT devices, as well as iPhone/iPad, and Android mobile and tablets. Hallmark Movies Now is also offered to existing multichannel video-programming distributors and is available on YouTube TV.

Additionally, Hallmark has created the Hallmark Movie Checklist app, a mobile guide that allows users to track Hallmark movie premieres, set tune-in reminders, and check off those that have been watched. The app has generated nearly 2 million downloads since its launch in 2018. 

“For a long time, a key component of our digital strategy has involved developing ways we can deepen our viewers’ engagement with our linear channels and enhance their overall experience with our brand and programming,” Vicary said. “These tactics include digital content extensions, games, and contests, and the Hallmark Movie Checklist app. In the near future, you will see us reinventing that experience to capture all our TV assets, including programming from our other two linear channels, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and Hallmark Drama.

“Obviously, there are a lot of viewers who turn to Hallmark Movies Now because they have cut the cord and don’t have access to Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, and Hallmark Drama,” Vicary added. “But many of the service’s subscribers have also maintained their traditional cable subscriptions, so we purposefully market our SVOD platform as additive to our linear channels, not just as an alternative.  We also put a lot of care into curating distinct content experiences across all our services – linear and digital. In this way, each platform features an entirely unique programing lineup.”

Scandal Comes to Hallmark Movies

While Crown aims to keep its Hallmark movies brand decidedly apolitical and non-controversial, 2019 was a challenging year for the company.

First Lori Loughlin, Hallmark movies’ signature star, was unceremoniously axed after her starring role in the real-life “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal. 

Then, in December, Crown caught flack for removing ads on its cable networks for wedding planning site Zola, which featured images of gay nuptials. Crown Media reversed that decision. And in January, Bill Abbott, who had led the company for 11 years as CEO, ankled. 

In the multi-act feel-good screenplay that is the Hallmark movies brand, both scandals will be merely a footnote to a history that spans all the way back to 1910,
when Hallmark launched as the manufacturer of greeting cards. 

Ultimately, the line was expanded to party goods, gift wrap and stationery, among other products, across its growing line of retail stores. And the brand, which was themed to families, joined the media world, first as the sponsor for 1940s dramatic anthology Radio Reader’s Digest, and then as Hallmark’s Playhouse, which debuted on CBS Radio in 1948.

Early Television Origins

In 1951, the Hallmark brand premiered on NBC as Hallmark Television Playhouse with an airing of the opera Amahl and the Night Visitors. One year later, also on NBC, was a series of live plays packaged in The Hallmark Summer Theater. In 1953, there was a new name, Hallmark Hall of Fame, which was used to promote the Hallmark products to the public through its family friendly storytelling. Through 1978, Hallmark was a staple on NBC as a periodic arena for television movies and specials.

In 1979, Hallmark Hall of Fame moved to CBS, where it remained through 1989 (excluding a brief run on PBS in 1981). ABC became the home for Hallmark Hall of Fame from 1989 to 1994, followed by 16 additional seasons on CBS (1994 to 2011), and a brief return on ABC. By September 2014, The Hallmark Channel became its exclusive home.

The Hallmark Channel

The origins of The Hallmark Channel began as Vision Interfaith Satellite Network (VISN), a cable channel launched in 1988 by the National Interfaith Cable Coalition. That group included 65 different religious groups.

In October 1992, VISN merged with the American Christian Television Service (ACTS), and was renamed VISN/ACTS. In 1994, it became the Faith & Values Channel (also featuring all religious-themed programming). And in 1996, the name was changed again to the Odyssey Channel. By then, the programming became more mass appeal in courtesy of the off-network syndication acquisitions of series like dramas Father Murphy and Our House, and nostalgic comedy Brooklyn Bridge.

In 2000, Crown Media Holdings, Inc. was formed when Hallmark Entertainment, Chase Equity Associates, Liberty Media, and the National Interfaith Cable Coalition transferred their 77.5% total interest in the Odyssey Network into Crown Media Holdings. And, in 2001, the name Odyssey Channel was changed to Hallmark Channel. The emphasis was on family friendly programming in the vein of Touched By an Angel and Hallmark Hall of Fame, among other repeat options, and miniseries The Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells, which was the first original programming venue following the rebranding.

Crown Media announced Monday that its three-year-old SVOD service, Hallmark Movies Now, has surpassed 1 million paid subscribers. 

Hallmark Movies Now charges subscribers $5.99 a month for full access to the programing libraries of Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and Hallmark Hall of Fame, plus some original content. 

Also Read: Hallmark Movies: Everything You Need to Know About the Middle-America-targeted Brand's Quest to Take Over Video Streaming

Crown credits its annual “Movies & Mistletoe” programming event for driving subscription streaming signups. Each week starting in late October through the New Year, the platform posts a refreshed offering of movies from Crown Media’s large library of holiday programming, featuring more than 80 holiday-themed films. 

Crown Media said that since the 2020 iteration of “Movies & Mistletoe” launched Oct. 23, Hallmark Movies Now app installs have increased by 128%.

Holy Emotional Blood Sugar Spikes, Batman

When “Movies & Mistletoe” wraps up at the end of next month, Hallmark Movies Now will launch season seven of popular Hallmark Movies original series When Calls the Heart, dropping episodes weekly up until the linear Hallmark Channel launches season eight of the show in February. 

Hallmark Movies Now will drop the first three episodes of When Calls the Heart on New Year’s Day, with the remaining seven episodes rolling out one at a time each Friday thereafter. Also the day after Christmas, subscribers can stream the 2019 holiday-themed special episode When Calls the Heart: Home for Christmas. 

Also Read: Hallmark Movies Now Launched On YouTube TV

Hallmark Movies Now is supported by Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV, as well as through pay TV wholesale agreements with Comcast, AT&T, Dish Network, Cox Communications and Frontier. 

Notably, Crown Media doesn't list Chromecast or Android TV as among the supported platforms. But last week, Crown did announce that Google’s YouTube TV is also now distributing the service. 

Crown Media Family Networks said that its subscription video on demand service, Hallmark Movies Now, has become available via YouTube TV.

YouTube TV subscribers can get Hallmark Movies Now as an add-on option for $5.99 a month, following a seven-day free trial.

The offering comes as the holiday season approaches, along with the service’s Movies and Mistletoe event chockablock with Christmas-themed content.

Also Read: Allison Bennett Upped at Crown Media

Launched in 2017, Hallmark Movies Now, provides access to nearly 1,000 hours of commercial-free Hallmark branded original content. 

Hallmark Movies Now is also available on iOS, Android, Roku and Amazon Fire platforms.

Streaming services Amazon Prime and Netflix will both roll out high-profile scripted series  heading into the Labor Day weekend.

Amazon Prime on Aug. 30 will debut Carnival Row, an eight-episode fantasy-themed drama series that depicts the tenuous relationship between humans and immigrant mythological creatures living among each other in the same city, according to the streaming service.

Also in the fantasy realm premiering Aug. 30 is Netflix’s The Dark Crystal:Age of Resistance (pictured), a 10-episode prequel series to the 1982 Jim Henson film The Dark Crystal.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting this week on cable networks and streaming services:

Aug. 26 -- Dave Chappelle: Stick & Stones (comedy special) -- Netflix

Aug. 27 -- The Devil You Know (documentary) -- Viceland

Aug. 28 -- The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2 (returning series) -- MTV 

Aug. 29 -- Growing Up Hip-Hop: New York (returning series) -- WE

Aug. 30 -- When Hope Calls (drama) -- Hallmark Movies Now

Aug. 30 -- Keeping Faith (returning series) -- Acorn Tv 

Aug. 30 -- Styling Hollywood (reality series) -- Netflix 

Sept. 2 -- Untouchable (documentary) -- Hulu