HALLMARK CHANNEL OFFERS UNIQUE CROSS-PLATFORM SPONSORSHIPS VIA HALLMARK BUSINESSES

Bayer Signs on as National Sponsor for Seventh Annual Mother's Day Initiative

Hallmark Channel continues to offer advertisers unprecedented value via the network's cross-platform holiday promotions. These initiatives are truly unique opportunities for advertisers to directly align their brand with the powerful and trusted Hallmark brand, and reach consumers across multi-platforms, including on-air (Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel), online (www.hallmarkchannel.com, www.hallmarkmoviechannel.com and www.hallmark.com) and in nearly 4,000 Hallmark Gold Crown� stores.

For the seventh consecutive year, Hallmark Channel will offer its viewers and advertisers alike a Mother's Day sweepstakes tied to the network's original holiday movie premiere. This year's sweepstakes will award one grand prize trip to Las Vegas to see a live concert � which directly complements the musical theme of the channel's Mother's Day movie, "Living Out Loud," starring Gail O'Grady, premiering Saturday, May 2 (9-11 p.m., ET/PT).

This year's cross-platform promotion is sponsored nationally by Bayer's One A Day� Women's Multivitamin. Recent data shows that consumers exposed to Hallmark Channel's holiday �08 cross-platform promotion accounted for virtually half of total spending for its sponsor, NESTLɮ Toll House�.

"Hallmark's holiday promotions provide sponsors unprecedented multi-platform reach by utilizing not just on-air and online tactics, but also the extended reach of retail outlets via the nearly 4,000 Hallmark Gold Crown stores," said Laura Masse, Executive Vice President, Marketing, Hallmark Channel. "Our holiday promotion last December reached an unduplicated 74 million households across these platforms, and we are successful in associating our advertising partners with the Hallmark brand across all of them."

The grand prize is a five-day/four-night trip for two to Las Vegas, including roundtrip airfare, hotel accommodations, complimentary breakfast, a two-hour spa package, $500 spending money, and tickets to a Las Vegas concert.

Consumers can enter the sweepstakes online at www.hallmarkchannel.com, in-store at participating Hallmark Gold Crown� stores by using their Hallmark Gold Crown Rewards card from April 13 to May 10, or via mail by sending a 3"x5" card to Hallmark Channel 2009 Mother's Day Sweepstakes Entry, P.O. Box #16669, West Haven, CT, 06516-6669.

Hallmark Channel will support its Mother's Day sweepstakes on-air and online, in print ads and via point-of-sale "Value Paks" in Hallmark Gold Crown stores. The "Value Paks" will feature a movie tune-in, sweepstakes entry information, and Hallmark Gold Crown discount offers � consumers can purchase a recordable photo album for $9.95 (regularly $18.00) with the purchase of three Hallmark cards. The national sponsor will also be integrated into the piece.

Hallmark Channel's most recent cross-platform promotion for its holiday �08 "Home for the Holidays" campaign was the first initiative to utilize Nielsen Fusion Metrics. NESTLɮ Toll House� sponsored the campaign, which reached consumers on-air, online, in the nearly 4,000 Hallmark Gold Crown Stores, in Hallmark Magazine and, for the first time ever, in Wal-Mart stores. The findings include:

Consumers exposed to Hallmark's cross-platform promotion accounted for $441 million spent on the brand, equaling virtually half of total spending for NESTLɮ Toll House�.

Hallmark brand enthusiasts spend +10% more on NESTLɮ Toll House� cookies per year than consumers who are not exposed to any of the Hallmark brands.

Three-time Emmy� nominee Gail O'Grady ("American Dreams") stars in "Living Out Loud," as Emily Marshall, a high school chorus teacher who encourages her students to achieve their goals, even though she abandoned her dreams of being a singer years earlier to begin a family. When a visit to the doctor unveils that Emily has invasive breast cancer, she begins treatment right away, leaving her husband Brad (Michael Shanks, "Stargate SG-1") to take care of their children, Melissa (Jessica Amlee, "Heartland") and Ben (Alex Ferris, "The L Word"), who he's been too busy to spend quality time with lately. Through her treatment sessions, Emily befriends a number of other women, including Connie (Babz Chula, "The French Guy"), whose strong will and optimistic attitude inspire Emily to start writing songs again. In turn, Emily's newfound strength becomes an inspiration to those around her.

Hallmark Channel, owned and operated by Crown Media United States, LLC is a 24-hour basic cable network that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming to a national audience of over 86 million subscribers. The top tier program service is distributed through more than 5,450 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country. Hallmark Channel consistently ranks among the top 10 ad-supported cable networks in Prime Time and Total Day household ratings and is the nation's leading network in providing quality family programming. Crown Media also operates a second 24-hour linear channel which plays the greatest family movies of all time, Hallmark Movie Channel, and launched Hallmark Movie Channel HD in April, 2008.