Who owns Crown Media Holdings?
Crown Media Holdings, Inc. owns and operates pay television channels dedicated to high-quality, broad-appeal, entertainment programming. The company currently operates and distributes the Hallmark Channel in the U.S. and the Hallmark Channel in more than 100 international markets. The combined channels have more than 73 million subscribers worldwide. Who owns Crown Media Holdings? Crown Media…
Crown Media Holdings, Inc. owns and operates pay television channels dedicated to high-quality, broad-appeal, entertainment programming. The company currently operates and distributes the Hallmark Channel in the U.S. and the Hallmark Channel in more than 100 international markets. The combined channels have more than 73 million subscribers worldwide.
Who owns Crown Media Holdings?
Crown Media Inc. was established in 1991 by Hallmark Cards Inc. to acquire cable television systems and programming ventures. The company was 98 percent owned by Hallmark, with Crown Chairman and CEO James Hoak owning the remaining 2 percent. Hoak was a veteran of the cable TV industry and the former chairman of MSO Heritage Communications.
In April 2001, Crown Media acquired 700 titles from the film library of Hallmark Entertainment Distribution, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hallmark Entertainment, Inc. The films would be shown on Crown Media’s cable networks and could also be licensed to other distributors. In addition, Crown Media planned to use the titles as part of Crown Interactive.
As a result of the transaction, which involved Crown Media assuming $220 million in debt and issuing more than 30 million shares of stock, Hallmark Cards, and Hallmark Entertainment would own about 65 percent of the outstanding common stock of Crown Media. The transaction, which required stockholder approval, was completed on October 1, 2001.
