• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, November 9, 2007

The Hallmark Channel posted a 19% growth in ad revenue in the just-completed third quarter and is drawing 75% CPM increases in the fourth-quarter scatter market over the upfront, parent company Crown Media said Thursday.

Overall net revenue at the company that also operates the smaller Hallmark Movie Channel jumped 17% to $55.3 million. Ad revenue of $47.8 million accounted for the bulk.

During the first nine months of 2007, ad dollars are up 17% (to $143.1 million) compared to a year ago, perhaps partly helped by growth in subscribers by about 10 million homes to 84.5 million.

Lately, the channel has benefited from little or no loss of viewers during ad breaks as the industry has moved to using commercial ratings as currency.

The Hallmark Movie Channel is in 10 million homes, and will launch an HD version next year.

Crown Media CEO Henry Schleiff said "wholesome and appealing family friendly programming ... resonates with our viewers ... and with our advertisers as demonstrated by the significant increases we experience every quarter in both volume and pricing. "