• by Wayne Friedman , May 5, 2010

Crown Media Holdings -- owners of the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel -- witnessed lower revenue in its first-quarter reporting period, bucking the trend of recent media company results.

Revenues sank 4% to $68.4 million, attributed in large part to lower advertising revenue, primarily due to lower ratings. Advertising revenues slipped 7% to $51.3 million. Positive results came from subscriber revenue, which climbed 11% to $17 million.

Hallmark results suffer in comparison to other cable network groups due to lower subscriber-to-advertising ratios where other cable media companies pull in similar subscriber revenue levels to that of its advertising revenue.

Like other media companies, Hallmark has been able to lower its costs during a weak economy. Its cost of services went 12% lower to $31.9 million in the period. Within this category, programming expenses dropped 9% to $29.2 million.

Hallmark has significantly cut back on marketing -- spending just under $1 million, down from $4.8 million in the first quarter of 2009.

The company trimmed its net loss to $2.3 million from $7.5 million in first-quarter 2009. Its adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) increased 31% for the quarter to $24.4 million, from $18.6 million in the first quarter of 2009.

Crown also noted that the Hallmark Movie Channel increased subscribers by 18% to 34.2 million at the end of the first quarter. And it become a Nielsen-rated cable network in the first quarter.