HLN Rebrands, Skews To Younger Demos

Looking to kick-start CNN’s sister network’s fortunes, HLN is rebranding -- in a somewhat younger-skewing viewer direction.

Albie Hecht, executive vice president and general manager, HLN, says the news network will be the first network “for the social media generation.”

The network will have a new marketing theme: “We’re Not The News Network. You Are.” Hecht was a longtime senior executive of Viacom; Viacom owns MTV and other youth-targeted networks.

“Just as MTV was adopted by a disconnected target audience that was underserved by television, HLN will be the first TV home to embrace the social-media generation and champion its interests,” stated Hecht.

HLN will incorporate social-media components into its networks where consumers are searching and sharing “all day long, nonstop and in real-time.”

Part of this process means adding new programming. One show, “RightThis Minute,” starting up Feb. 10 at 10 p.m. ET., will look to find Web videos and the stories behind them before going viral.

In the fourth quarter of 2013, HLN's daytime audience declined 9%, per Nielsen, to 204,000 -- as well as enduring a 9% drop in prime-time viewers to average 268,000. For the full-year 2013, HLN was up 23% to 298,000 total average daytime viewers over the year before; its prime-time audience gained 18% to 399,000 viewers.

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1 comment about "HLN Rebrands, Skews To Younger Demos".
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  1. Edmund Singleton from Winstion Communications, February 11, 2014 at 9:52 a.m.

    Here's hoping that a clean screen, make that a cleaner screen is under consideration...CNN is well known for its cluttered screen...

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