Profile: Crown Media Holdings, Inc. (CRWN.O)

Crown Media Holdings, Inc., incorporated in December 1999, owns and operates a pay television channel, known as the Hallmark Channel dedicated to entertainment programming for adults and families. In addition, the Company owns and operates the Hallmark Movie Channel, which is around the clock digital cable network dedicated to offering viewers a collection of movies and mini-series and the Hallmark Movie Channel HD, which was launched in April 2008. Its channels are distributed in the United States and its territories and possessions, including Puerto Rico. Its wholly owned subsidiary is Crown Media United States, LLC.

The Company offers a range of entertainment programming for adults and families including television series, movies, miniseries, theatricals, romances, literary classics, and contemporary stories. Sources for programming on its channels include programming licensed from Buena Vista Television, CBS Television Distribution, Hallmark Hall of Fame, Paramount Pictures, RHI Entertainment Distribution, Twentieth Television, Warner Bros. and other third party producers. It distributes the Hallmark Channel through 5,450 cable, satellite and other pay television distribution systems and the Hallmark Movie Channel through 500 such systems. It has agreements with Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, DIRECTV, EchoStar, Mediacom, the National Cable Television Cooperative, Time Warner and many other pay television distributors. These distributors also have the rights to distribute the Hallmark Movie Channel and the Hallmark Movie Channel HD. In addition, the Company has agreements with telephone companies to furnish video programming to consumers, including AT&T, the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, and Verizon.

The Company uses four platforms to transmit programming: cable television systems, analog and digital satellite broadcast systems, digital terrestrial television broadcasters and satellite master antenna television. Cable television systems use coaxial or fiber optic cable to transmit multiple channels between a central facility, known as a headend, and the individual subscriber's television set. Analog and digital satellite broadcast systems use satellite transponders to broadcast television programming to individual dwellings with satellite reception equipment, including a dish and a decoder. Digital terrestrial television broadcasters (DTT) broadcast locally or through regional or national ground-based transmission networks. Satellite master antenna television (SMATV) is used primarily for buildings, such as apartments and hotels that receive programming from satellites by means of a single antenna that is connected to the buildings' headend.

The Company competes with TNT, USA Network, A&E, the Discovery Channel, Lifetime, Oxygen and ABC Family.