HALLMARK CHANNEL COMBINES SCHEDULING AND ACQUISITIONS DEPARTMENTS AND ANNOUNCES PROMOTIONS

Michelle Vicary Promoted to Senior Vice President, Acquisitions and Scheduling

Darren Melameth Promoted to Director, Programming Mark Davidson Promoted to Manager, Acquisitions

Hallmark Channel has restructured its Program Scheduling and Acquisitions departments by combining them into one group and promoting key staff. The changes were made under the leadership of David Kenin, Executive Vice President, Programming, and take effect immediately for both Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel. Michelle Vicary has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Acquisitions and Scheduling from Vice President, Program Scheduling and Administration, reporting to Kenin. Darren Melameth has been promoted to Director, Programming from Director, Scheduling, and Mark Davidson has been named Manager, Acquisitions from Manager, Scheduling. Both will report to Vicary. All three are based in the network�s Los Angeles headquarters.

�This is an exciting time of growth at Hallmark Channel and I�m delighted to reward Michelle, Darren and Mark for their extraordinary efforts,� said Kenin. �Michelle and her team have helped the channel rise to become a Top 10 network by vigorously working the schedule.�

Vicary oversees all strategic scheduling, acquisitions, and program planning. She will negotiate acquisition deals , collaborate with original programming to increase the effectiveness of projects, and oversee the network�s inventory needs. She will also manage content for alternate program platforms, including video-on-demand and High Definition.

Vicary began with the company in 1999 as Manager, Program and Promo Scheduling and was later promoted to Director, Program Scheduling and Administration. She was part of the original launch team at the channel and later helped rebrand and transition the network to Hallmark Channel. She was promoted to Vice President, Program Scheduling and Administration in 2003 and has since served as an integral architect of the network�s schedule.

Prior to joining Hallmark Channel, Vicary held positions at Evening Star Music Group, MGM Television Networks, Rykodisc Distribution and Caroline Records. Vicary holds a bachelor�s degree from California State University, Northridge, in radio, television and film.

As Director, Programming, Darren Melameth is directly responsible for the program scheduling. This includes original movies, quarterly strategies, event programming and on-air stunts. He will collaborate with research to maximize the network�s ratings and work closely with other departments to optimize program strategies. He will also oversee standards and practices, formatting, and follow industry programming trends for on-air use.

Melameth joined Hallmark Channel in 2000 as Scheduling Coordinator and was quickly promoted to Manager, and later Senior Manager of Programming and Scheduling. Melameth earned a bachelor�s degree in fine arts from Southern Methodist University where he graduated magna cum laude.

As Manager, Acquisitions, Mark Davidson will work closely with movie studios and independent suppliers to determine product availability and to prepare pricing analyses for the network. He is responsible for making acquisition recommendations based on competitive research and current inventory needs. He will also help negotiate business points for all acquisition deals and work closely with finance on the network�s acquisitions budget.

Davidson joined the network in 2002 as Programming and Scheduling Coordinator and was later promoted to Manager, Programming and Scheduling. He earned an M.B.A. in finance and management from Loyola Marymount University and a bachelor�s degree in anthropology from the University of Washington.

Hallmark Channel is a 24-hour basic cable channel that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming to a national audience of 74 million subscribers. The top tier program service is distributed through more than 5,300 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country. It consistently ranks in the Top 10 in Total Day and Prime Time household ratings. 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.