Naomi's New Morning

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December 11, 2006                                                    David Johnson, 818.755.2675

                                                                          www.hallmarkchannelpress.com

EIGHT-TIME GRAMMY AWARD-WINNER NAOMI JUDD

TESTIFIES BEFORE FCC’S PUBLIC MEDIA OWNERSHIP MEETING TODAY

SINGER/SONGWRITER HIGHLIGHTS ARTISTS’ PLIGHT IN A

CONSOLIDATED MEDIA WORLD

The Following is the Testimony Given Today by Naomi Judd in Nashville, Tennessee at the FCC’s All-Day Public Panel on Media Ownership

Thank you so much for inviting me to participate in this hearing.   The issues connected with media ownership are important to so many of us for so many reasons, and I hope that this hearing, and my testimony will shed light on how and why media ownership issues are important to me.

I am a proud member of AFTRA, and I built my career as a recording artist.   Many of my fellow singers and songwriters are here today, and I fully expect that they’ll have a lot to say about how difficult it can be for singers and musicians to get airplay on commercial radio.    Since so few companies own so many radio stations, it’s hard to get airplay these days.    Playlists are narrower.   Formats overlap.   Program directors and deejays don’t decide what gets played these days; those decisions are made in the home office of the parent company.  People know what’s happened to radio, and it’s a problem for recording artists today. I am asking you to consider whether we want the same thing to happen to television and newspapers.

My success as a recording artist brought me tremendous opportunities to branch out and to expand my career.   Currently, I have a new talk show Sunday mornings on Hallmark Channel called “Naomi’s New Morning.”  Hallmark Channel is our country’s leading cable network in providing family-friendly programming – it exists among a sea of bundled conglomerates.  Media ownership is coming down to the largest conglomerates using their leverage to force the sale of their bundled networks to cable operators at artificially higher rates.  The result is reduction of choice at an increased cost to you.  Just as artists have learned in radio, the loss of choice isn’t good for the artist and it isn’t good for consumers.  In that regard, strongly desired networks like the Hallmark Channel face huge barriers in obtaining fair license fees from distributors for their programming because as an independent network, not part of a larger group, they do not receive license fees to which they would otherwise be entitled.  If media ownership accelerates in television to only benefit the few conglomerates then networks like Hallmark Channel – a Top Five ratings winner in basic cable – will be negatively and permanently affected.  Protect your family’s choice by knowing all there is to know about the proliferation of bundling and media ownership issues.

Because I’ve been blessed with a successful career, I’ve had the opportunity to focus on issues that really matter to me.  I’ve tried to bring attention to the importance of women’s health issues, health care reform, liver disease and domestic violence.   I’ve lent my voice as an advocate for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, for volunteerism, and for school programs that support the arts.   In all of this work, I’ve tried to communicate important messages to local communities.   I personally feel that it’s critical to maintain a diverse and local media, so that these important messages get to the communities.    In closing, if television and newspaper ownership becomes more consolidated, independent networks like Hallmark Channel will struggle to survive and it will be more difficult for activists and advocates to get their message to local communities.

Thank you for having me on the panel of distinguished guests today.

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 75 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.  Hallmark Channel consistently ranks among the top 10 ad-supported cable networks in Total Day and Prime Time household ratings and is the nation’s leading network in providing family-friendly programming.  Crown Media also operates a second 24-hour linear channel, Hallmark Movie Channel.

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