Even with new entrants into the vacation house, Georger famous that “imitation is the sincerest type of flattery.”
“Whereas there’s loads of gamers in that house, Hallmark continues to dominate and be far and away the vacation spot throughout the vacation time,” Georger stated. “We’ll all the time make {that a} large a part of our dialog.”
The corporate is continuous to develop its content material in 2023, delivering two new sequence this 12 months, with the just lately launched present Experience and the Andie MacDowell-starring sequence The Method Dwelling, which has already been greenlit for Season 2. When Calls the Coronary heart can also be coming again in 2024 for Season 11.
As well as, after the corporate turned the three-decade-old greeting card line Mahogany into an leisure model centered on Black tradition and Black girls, Hallmark Films & Mysteries will proceed to showcase the model together with different new unique content material in 2023.
A market that’s altering FAST
Even in a softer advert market and with linear’s decline in general viewers, Georger stated the corporate’s share of the accessible market is rising.
“Whenever you have a look at your cable finances, and you’ve got choices within the market, we encourage you to have a look at Hallmark’s share of viewing versus our competitors as a result of whereas the complete pie will not be the identical measurement, our slice of it continues to be larger,” he stated. “In order that’s kind of the extra rapid story in terms of the upfront for ’23-’24.”
The corporate can also be delivering its traditional content material in new methods to match client viewing habits. As an example, in 2022, NBCUniversal’s Peacock began streaming reside and on-demand programming from Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Films & Mysteries and Hallmark Drama.
“This can be a reside, linear feed with the identical commercials which are on the linear facet,” Georger stated. “So whether or not it’s an MVPD or digital MVPD, we feed the identical reside, linear feed with commercials, and that’s what’s accessible to streamers who subscribe to Peacock.”
And although the message this 12 months is concerning the energy of its linear content material, Hallmark is continuous to deliver streaming and FAST channels to its technique, with veteran digital media exec Emily Powers becoming a member of the corporate as evp of streaming and digital platforms in January.
Georger famous that although the corporate is making an attempt an untraditional upfront method—and seeing success from it—all the things comes again to Hallmark’s core values and mission.
“It’s that model; it’s that fandom; it’s that scale and that giant share of voice that we’ve got within the market,” Georger stated. “You layer on that the essence of the model and the way that advantages the buyer, the viewer, the advertiser and the distribution companions to see why, in a difficult market, we proceed to satisfy our expectations and the expectations of our purchasers.”
