FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 15, 2008

HALLMARK CHANNEL RETAINS LEADERSHIP POSITION IN AD EFFECTIVENESS FOR ‘07-‘08 BROADCAST SEASON,

RANKING  #2 AMONG ALL MAJOR NETWORKS  IN C3 RATINGS,

 #1 IN LENGTH-OF-TUNE

          With the 2007-’08 broadcast season drawing to a close, Hallmark Channel has maintained its leadership role in ad effectiveness earning the second-highest ranking for Live+3 commercial ratings (C3) with 95.2% audience retention of the Prime Time average program rating in households for the 2007-08 broadcast season-to-date  (10/1/07-4/27/08), and #1 in Prime Time length-of-tune (25.1 minutes).  The rankings include major distributed cable and broadcast networks.       

          Hallmark Channel, the nation’s leading provider of family friendly programming, also ranked #2 with 93.9% A25-54 audience retention, ranked #2 with 93.8% A18-49 audience retention, and #1 A25-54 (21.1 minutes) and #1 A18-49 (20.5 minutes) in Prime Time Length-of-Tune

          “The previously released first quarter C-3 audience retention and Length-of-Tune data was so well received, we thought it would be helpful to release data for the first full season that C-3 has been used as media currency,” said Jess D. Aguirre, Senior Vice President, Research.  “For the ’07-08 broadcast season, C-3 and Length-of-tune rankings among A18-49 clearly indicate commercial retention and Length-of-Tune is less impacted by age and gender and more a function of program content and the matched flow between programs and commercials which are easy on viewer sensibilities.  Our research has found that viewers want more programs that they can sit back, relax and enjoy in mixed company without having to have their hand on the remote.  Additionally, according to Nielsen time-shifting data, movies are the top “entertainment genre” viewed live (98.4%), even beating sports (97.8%), and only second to news (98.7%).”      

           “We are very happy that this data confirms what we have always known, that our viewers stay tuned through the commercials.  And we are pleased that the C3 ratings results for the broadcast season further confirm that fact, and more importantly, that the C3 metric has now become the currency of the business,” said Bill Abbott, Executive Vice President, Advertising Sales.      

          For reference, the Top 10 networks in Prime Time HH audience retention season-to-date were Nick-at-Nite, Hallmark Channel, The Weather Channel, TV Land, The Cartoon Network truTV, ESPN, ABC Family, Home and Garden TV and Lifetime Television.

          Breakdowns are below: