Hallmark buys EM.TV’s Crown stake for $90m

Hallmark Entertainment, an investor in Crown Media Holdings, has paid US$90m for the 8.2% interest in Crown Media held by EM.TV-owned Jim Henson Company.

Crown Media has also revised its two programme agreements with Jim Henson Company and EM.TV, substantially reducing Crown Media's programming obligations.

Crown Media will now pay Henson and EM.TV a total of $13m and will license one series from the EM.TV library and two new series – Hoobs and Construction Site – from Henson. Crown Media’s previous deal obliged it to buy pre-existing and original programming.

Hallmark bought 5.4m Crown Media Class A shares from Henson. The shares were issued to Henson in March, in exchange for Henson's 22.5% stake in Crown Media United States, which operates the Hallmark Channel US/Odyssey Network.

Following the deal, Hallmark Cards and its units own 36.2m shares in Crown Media, equivalent to 55.3% of the shares outstanding, which control about 91.4% of the voting power.

Crown Media will rebrand its Odyssey Network Channel the Hallmark Channel on August 5 and carry more adult, family-friendly programming, shifting away from the current children's programming mix.