Crown Posts Loss for Q4, Fiscal Year 2006

Despite reporting an increase in subscribers for its Hallmark Channel, Crown Media Holdings, Inc. had a net loss for both the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2006, the company announced Thursday. The Studio City-based Crown reported a net loss of $30 million, or $0.29 per share, on revenues of $58.4 million for the quarter ending Dec. 31. That is a somewhat better than the net loss of $59.8 million, or a loss of $0.57 per share for the same reporting period in 2005 when Crown’s revenues were $60.5 million. For the full fiscal year, Crown had a $389 million net loss, or $3.17 per share, on revenues of $201.2 million. That compares with a net loss of $232.8 million, or $2.22 per share, on revenues of $197.4 million for fiscal 2005. Hallmark Channel subscribers increased during the year to 74.6 million from 70.7 million. The channel’s growth has come from delivering family-friendly programming of interest to women and baby boomers while competing against other networks with broader distribution and greater resources, said Crown President and CEO Henry Schleiff. “During the coming year ahead we will focus our efforts on the continued emphasis of our brand through the production of original movies and related programming, the successful renewal of our distribution agreements, and the ability to derive financial benefits from a fixed cost structure with increasing advertising and subscriber fee revenues,” Schleiff said. Crown also announced Thursday it is renewing its multi-year agreement with EchoStar Communications, Corp. to air the Hallmark Channel and the Hallmark Movie Channel on EchoStar’s DISH Network.