Hallmark+

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Hallmark at 25: more … and then some more

As the Hallmark Channel celebrates its 25th birthday, it’s planning a lot of the same. A lot.
The cable network started on April 5, 2001, as an unlikely merger of three H’s — Henson (Jim, the Muppet man), Halmi (Robert, a movie/mini-series guy) and Hallmark, the greeting-card folks.
The others soon departed, but Hallmark kept growing. It has Christmas movies — roughly a zillion of them — and more, sometimes with tie-ins.
It’s again linking with pro-football (the Bears, this year) and with the Biltmore estate. It has also set a movie linking with Disney … which makes historical sense: Long ago, we’re told, Hallmark was one of the first businesses to license Mickey Mouse.
There’s also has a streaming service, Hallmark+ (currently with a Lacey Chabert mini-series, shown here). We’ll start there: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 5, 2026
News and Quick Comments

Need more Christmas? Hallmark+ has a bunch

Maybe you’ve grumbled that there just aren’t enough Christmas movies and specials on TV.
Or maybe not. Still, there’s a new force – the Hallmark+ streamer – to add to the pile. That peaks on the next two Thursday (Dec. 5 and 12), with “Holidazed” (shown here) and more.
Hallmark+ joins a general overload. For the four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we counted 45 new holiday films on basic-cable channels – Lifetime, Hallmark, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, Great American Family, Oprah Winfrey Network, UPtv and BYUtv.
Into that crowd comes this new streaming service with: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 29, 2024
Stories

TV’s Christmas avalanche begins

Ready or not, TV is starting its Christmastime avalanche.
That starts with the Thanksgiving Day parade and ends with Christmas Day movie marathons . Over a four-week stretch (see the separate story for a full list), it will range from the classics – Rudolph and Frosty, Scrooge and the Grinch (shown here) and more – to the new.
Well, a few new things, anyway. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 28, 2024
News and Quick Comments

Yes, even Hallmark can change

TV has a few things that seem permanent and unyielding.
There’s “NCIS” and “Law & Order,” Judge Judy and Charles Barkley and the Hallmark Channel. Except, now even Hallmark is changing.
The basics will stay the same. This season, the cable channels (Hallmark and Hallmark Mysteries) will combine for about 100 new movies, 40 of them with Christmas themes. Attractive young men and women will still bicker briefly, before deciding they kind of like each other.
But beyond that are the changes, including:
— Streaming. Hallmark Movies Now expands to become Hallmark+, with lots of old shows and some new ones. It starts Tuesday (Sept. 10) with a series (“The Chicken Sisters”), a movie trilogy (“Love on the Danube,” shown here) and a reality show (“Celebrations with Lacey Chabert”); there will be more soon. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 6, 2024
News and Quick Comments

Hallmark+ sets a Sept. 10 debut

On Sept. 10, viewers will face a rare dilemma: Should they watch the first Harris-Trump debate or obsess on Hallmark?
Hmmm … fate of the free world or love amongst the chaste and beautiful. Why is life always so complicated?
Actually, you could catch both. It’s just that Sept. 10 (already the date of the ABC debate) is now the starting date for Hallmark+.
Company executives had previously laid out the general idea. (See separate story.) A small streaming service (Hallmark Movies Now) will be folded into this larger one. In addition to shows from the two Hallmark cable channels, it will soon include other movies (shown here), plus a series, a mini-series and a surge of reality shows. Now the details are available; they include: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 14, 2024
Stories

Hallmark joins the plus party, in a big way

No one would accuse Hallmark of being trendy or jumpy.
The company has been around for 114 years, still family-owned. For years, its cable channels seemed to keep re-making the same movie.
But now it’s joining TV’s biggest trend – streaming services with a “+” in their names. And it’s doing it in a surprisingly ambitious way with everything from a mini-series (“Holidazed, shown here with Erin Cahill) to reality shows.
“Hallmark+ will be more than just a streaming platform,” Mike Perry, the Hallmark CEO, said. “It will be the very best of Hallmark all in one place.”
Details arrived Aug. 14 (see separate story), but the general idea was sketched earlier, at Television Critics Association sessions:
Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 10, 2024