Mumbai: Hallmark Channel has signed a carriage agreement with Telewest Broadband to secure its place across all major digital platforms.

The long-term carriage deal means an additional 500,000 viewers will be able to see Hallmark as part of Telewest Broadband’s ‘essential plus’ package. The combined channels will now reach over 7 million digital subscribers from 2 September 2002.

Hallmark Channel (UK) chief executive Jeff Henry says: “The completion of this agreement with Telewest Broadband means we’ve reached our goal of maximum distribution. The fact that we’re now carried across all digital platforms is a testament to the strength of our channel over the past two years and we’re very much looking forward to a constructive partnership with Telewest Broadband.”

Telewest Broadband sales and marketing director David Hobday says: “This is great news for our customers who can now watch the best mix of family-friendly entertainment from Hallmark. The channel provides compelling programming that complements our existing channel line-up and further enhances our customer’s experience of digital TV.”

Hallmark Channel is a 24-hour television network that provides high-quality entertainment programming across all digital platforms and is available on ntl:home, Sky Digital and Telewest Broadband channel 190.

The UK channel was launched in May 2000 on Sky Digital, securing carriage with ntl:home in November 2001. In the past year Hallmark has seen its audience share increase by more than 140 per cent year on year (source: BARB: Adults).

Crown Media Holdings Inc owns and operates the Hallmark Channel which, in addition to the UK, is distributed worldwide to 110 international countries. The combined channels reach 92 million subscribers globally.

Telewest Communications, the broadband communications and media group, currently passes 4.9 million homes and provides multichannel television, telephone and Internet services to around 1.8 million UK households, and voice and data telecommunications services to around 74, 300 business customers.

Its content division, Flextech, is the biggest provider of basic channels to the UK pay-TV market and is the BBC’s partner in UKTV, which has a portfolio of pay-TV channels based on the corporation’s programming, including UK Gold.