• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, October 4, 2006

As widely speculated, Henry Schleiff, the former chairman of Court TV, has been named president-CEO of Crown Media Holdings, the parent company of the Hallmark Channel, a network that has a rocky past, but which recently has been demonstrating advertising and ratings growth.

During his tenure at Court TV, Schleiff is credited with transforming the channel from the news and legal information conceived by founder Steve Brill to a mainstream programming network emphasizing general entertainment programming. Under his helm, Court TV also pioneered many innovative sales strategies and original research, including the first ever upfront advertising deals tied to some form of audience engagement delivery guarantees.

Schleiff gave up day-to-day duties at Court TV in May when Time Warner took control of the network and placed it under its Turner Broadcasting Systems unit along with TNT and TBS.

Schleiff is the second top Court TV executive to land as head of a cable programming operation. Last month, Charlie Collier, former head of advertising sales at Court TV, was tapped by Rainbow Media Holdings to run its AMC movie channel.

Schleiff, who succeeds David Evans who resigned earlier this year as head of Crown Media, faces a considerable challenge in resuscitating the company, which had been put on and subsequently taken off the block when no buyers emerged. The company's stock prices has tanked recently due to heavy expenses related to its film library. The Hallmark Channel, however, has continued to gain momentum in both Nielsen ratings and on Madison Avenue.

Industry observers will be curious to see whether Schleiff will look to shift the family oriented Hallmark Channel toward more mainstream programming in hopes of broadening its audience beyond its current 25-54 year old base. Hallmark has had several incarnations in its storied history, launching as a religious-oriented cable programming service created by a group of interfaith organizations. Before becoming Hallmark, it was known as Odyssey.