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Traditionally, film and television have been separate in Hollywood – run as separate divisions of the same company, covered by separate critics at media outlets, networking via separate member organizations – but there is of course an area of vigorous hybridization: television movies.
In past, television networks all had stables of television movies, developed, produced and distributed by the Big Three broadcasters. While the state of TV movies is not quite as healthy as it once was, there is one network that is keeping the heart pumping, filling the lungs with the air and generally doing a remarkable job with this crossover genre: Hallmark Channel.
This being the case, I recently spoke with David Kenin, EVP of Programming at the Hallmark Channel, and I was stunned to hear about their development process. Specifically, David relates that 95% of their projects in development end up getting produced and distributed. 95%. Unlike the film world, there is no ‘development hell’ with years of uncertainty or only a slim chance of a script getting produced and distributed. Unlike the television world, there aren’t multiple pilots, the majority of whom will fail. Hallmark knows their brand, knows their audience so well that only 5% of the time does a script in development end up not being seen by viewers. This remarkable efficiency extends all the way back to the first pitch meeting and/or script evaluation, with David and his team being rigorous to the point of only saying ‘yes’ if they’re sure that it will be made.
Given this remarkable efficiency of development through distribution, who owns this content? It turns out that in most cases, the Hallmark Channel does not own their movies, instead they have outside producers and they pay a license fee to cover production. David does however say that Hallmark deals have changed over the years, that in some cases they retain the rights to release DVDs, etc, and in some cases they retain full ownership. These changes have been spurred by the maturing of the network, as evidenced by the fact that of the 150 movies made during Kenin’s tenure, Hallmark only owns one or two, these being the most recent ones. Hallmark has a loyal audience and since they know their audience so well, the network knows what to expect from their movies and thus there’s less risk in owning them.
On the film side, are these movies shot locally? David says that of the 150 movies he’s overseen, the first 120 were all made here in California. Most future productions will also be shot locally although Hallmark has made a number of movies elsewhere, mostly in Canada. In addition, they are considering a movie in New Mexico, and another one in New England.
On the television side, what about ratings and reruns? As expected, the original movie in the week or month is the highest-rated product to the consumer. What is however remarkable is that the movies repeat beautifully, they may open up with a 2.3 and then repeat the second or third time with a 1.8. Even more amazingly, David relates that sometimes the 12th or 13th run of a movie outperforms the original. How could this be true, you ask? Turns out that the Hallmark Channel is really hitting the sweet spot by targeting an underserved audience who likes values entertainment, stories about families, etc, and this being true, they are working to aggressively expand their sister network, the Hallmark Movie Channel. David and his team see the Hallmark Movie Channel as assembling the best family movies of all time so that every hour of the day they’ll be providing movies that won’t be embarrassing to anyone in the family.
Combine a 95% development-to-distribution throughput rate with a finished product that repeats solidly and you have some very happy advertisers. This being the case, I asked about competitors and their advertisers, if other networks might see the remarkable success that Hallmark is enjoying and attempt to reproduce it. David acknowledged that there are fewer TV movie exhibitors over the cable and broadcast network sides today, and that this is just fine by Hallmark. In terms of expansion, David says that they have considered DVD releases, theatrical releases, a variety of different options but their principal contract is still with the cable operator, the advertising community and the consumer, inasmuch as the consumer is primarily served by the cable linear channel. Will Hallmark continue with its near-perfect success rates? Almost certainly, since they really know their audience and their product, they have it down to a science. Will other networks similarly seek to bridge the film-television divide? Only time will tell.
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