HALLMARK CHANNEL SIGNS CONAGRA FOODS AND LISTERINE POCKETPAKS TO SPONSOR ITS ANNUAL VALENTINE�S DAY CROSS-PLATFORM PROMOTION

Hallmark Channel and the holidays go together like cupids and arrows, and this Valentine�s Day the network�s annual cross-platform sweepstakes will be sponsored by ConAgra Foods and Listerine PocketPaks. ConAgra Foods will promote its Homestyle Bakes line. The annual cross-platform sweepstakes will be featured on air, online and in store at approximately 4,000 Hallmark Gold Crown stores across the country, and coincides with the premiere of Hallmark Channel�s Original holiday movie, �Falling in Love with the Girl Next Door,� premiering Saturday, February 4 (9 pm, ET/PT).

Both sponsors will have a presence on all three platforms. On-air support includes promotional spots, sweepstakes spots, billboards, Valentine vignettes and �Inside Story� behind-the-scenes vignettes. Hallmark Channel�s website (www.hallmarkchannel.com) will include a link to enter the sweepstakes, and participating Hallmark Gold Crown stores will feature point-of-purchase displays.

The sweepstakes offers the chance for entrants to win a trip for two to Los Angeles and a VIP visit to the set of a Hallmark Channel Original movie. �Hallmark Channel�s original holiday movies and the resulting promotions are a valuable asset to the network and its advertisers,� said Bill Abbott, Executive Vice President, Ad Sales, Hallmark Channel. �They consistently draw a strong consumer audience, associating our sponsors with a high-quality brand that has the longest length of tune in cable.�

�Falling in Love With the Girl Next Door,� stars Emmy� Award winner Shelley Long (�Cheers�) and Academy Award�, Emmy� and Golden Globe winner Patty Duke (�Murder Without Conviction�) as, Betsy and Bridget, two strong-willed women who have battled for decades over who throws the best Halloween party on Catalina Island. When Bridget�s daughter, Theresa, (Crystal Allen, �Maid in Manhattan�) returns home after a failed romance and falls in love with the boy next door (Ken Marino, �What I Like About You�), her childhood friend and Betsy�s son, the two women try to put their differences aside � unsuccessfully � for the sake of their children. Patrick Duffy (�Dallas�) and Bruce Boxleitner (�Babylon 5�) co-star.

Hallmark Channel is a 24-hour basic cable channel that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming to a national audience of more than 71 million subscribers. The program service is distributed through more than 5,200 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country. Crown Media also operates a second 24-hour linear channel, Hallmark Movie Channel. Through its subsidiary, Crown Media Distribution, LLC, Crown also distributes titles from its award-winning collection of movies, miniseries and films for exhibition in a variety of television media including broadcast, cable, Video-on-Demand and High Definition Television.