Darren Melameth has been promoted to Vice President, Program Planning and Scheduling for Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel, it was announced today by Michelle Vicary, Senior Vice President, Acquisitions and Scheduling, to whom Melameth will report.  He will continue to be based in the Los Angeles office.
    “I am thrilled to recognize Darren and his contribution to our tremendous growth at Hallmark Channel,” said Vicary. “His skill at working the schedule and his strategic thinking has helped us maintain our position in the Top 10 for the last two years.  He will be an asset as we expand programming on Hallmark Movie Channel and our alternative platforms.”
In this new position, Melameth will be responsible for the oversight and execution of all network and alternative platform scheduling as well as providing strategic direction to the acquisitions team.  In addition, he will offer direction and creative guidance to department leaders in order to deliver an optimal programming schedule.
    Most recently, Melameth served as Director, Programming after being promoted from Director, Scheduling, where he worked closely with research and ad sales to analyze and apply competitive research to strengthen overall ratings. He joined Hallmark Channel in 2000 as Scheduling Coordinator and was quickly promoted to Manager, and later Senior Manager of Programming and Scheduling. 
    Melameth has a bachelor of fine arts from Southern Methodist University.
Hallmark Channel, owned and operated by Crown Media Holdings, Inc., is a 24-hour basic cable network that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming to a national audience of nearly 84 million subscribers.  The top tier program service is distributed through more than 5,450 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country.  Hallmark Channel consistently ranks among the top 10 ad-supported cable networks in Prime Time and Total Day household ratings and is the nation’s leading network in providing quality family programming.  Crown Media also operates a second 24-hour linear channel which plays the greatest family movies of all time, Hallmark Movie Channel, and launched Hallmark Movie Channel HD in April, 2008.