• by Wayne Friedman , March 13, 2008

Crown Media Holdings, owner of the Hallmark Channel, widened its losses for the fourth quarter of 2007 some 24% to $37.5 million. The downward numbers were primarily attributed to selling expenses, which increased to $21.6 million, due to bonus and legal expenses. However, for the full year, Crown Media narrowed its net loss--now at $159 million versus $389 million in 2006.

Advertising sales continue to improve, growing 21% to $63 million. Subscriber fee revenues still lagged behind ad revenues in growth and total dollars, only inching up 3% during the period to $6.4 million.

For the full year, Crown Media's total revenues climbed 17% to $234.4 million. Yearly ad revenue growth was at 18% to $206.2 million, while subscriber fees climbed 12% to $27.8 million.

Recently, Hallmark Channel has made deals with three major TV distributors--Comcast Corp., Time Warner, and DirecTV--to improve their subscriber revenue positions. At bigger cable network groups, total advertiser and subscriber revenue is nearly the same, or with ad revenues slightly more than subscriber revenue.

Crown Media noted that Hallmark's ratings have grown to where it is the eighth-best-rated cable network among 69 ad-supported networks in prime time with a 1.2 household rating. For the year, Hallmark subscribers grew by 12%, or 9.3 million, to 83.9 million.

Next month, Hallmark will launch the Hallmark Movie Channel in high definition.

In other news, Crown Media CEO Henry Schleiff told industry analysts during the company's earnings conference call that the Hallmark Channel was no longer for sale.

Two and a half years ago, Crown Media had been actively looking for a buyer for the Hallmark Channel. Although the active process ended in 2006, Schleiff had been informally looking into possible merger/partnership deals since then, including Time Warner.

He told analysts the company's focus is on running the business in the best interests of the shareholders and the company.