• Mediaweek, Thursday, February 8, 2007 11 AM

Mediacom Communications has renewed a distribution agreement with the Hallmark Channel, inking a multi-year deal that will keep the network available to the operator's 1.4 million subscribers. While terms were not disclosed, Mediacom CEO Rocco Commisso says the license fee agreed upon was "fair and reasonable."

Hallmark's legacy license fees are about five cents per subscriber, although the network is pushing for more. When he took over Hallmark last fall, Crown Media Holdings CEO Henry Schleiff said he'd push for rate increases as he negotiates new carriage agreements with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and DirecTV, all of which are set to expire on or before Dec. 31.

The channel has had a run of ratings growth, finishing 2006 as the 11th most-watched ad-supported cable net in prime time with an average nightly viewership of 1.17 million, a gain of 26 percent year-over-year. It also boosted its core adults 25-54 demo by 10 percent.

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