“Heart-warming”, “holiday cheer” and “family hearth” are expressions that haven’t come to mind recently given our last few blogs on the “Walking Dead”, “Sons of Anarchy” and the “Vikings”.

But they sure do now with the Hallmark Channel, which will air a dozen new holiday movies starting in early November and running through the middle of December. Some of the most wonderful, inspiring programs on television will begin to air in just a few days, including numerous old favorites that will make you laugh, make you cry, and ultimately warm your heart with good will and good cheer.

In an age when it’s all too easy to lapse into cynicism, there’s a certain temptation to write off such programming as unrealistic or simply too sugary sweet. But tell that to the millions of Americans who can’t seem to get enough of Hallmark’s holiday-themed movies, which pull down very high cable ratings.

As can be seen in the following chart below, Total Day U.S. HH ratings are fairly stable throughout the year (blue bars) when there are no Holiday Movie programs (with the exception of limited airings in January and July). But, then, during the last two months of the year, ratings practically double as Hallmark rolls out its holiday-themed movies (orange line):

_{Source: Viamedia analysis of Rentrak TV Essentials Data (Telecast Summary Report) for the Hallmark Channel (January – December 2013.) Monthly Total Day ratings are based on Live-viewing only. Minutes represent the addition of all monthly programming minutes that are associated with Movies (genre) and Holiday (sub-genre).}

Over the past two years (November/December 2013 vs 2012), we have seen a 6% lift in Total Day U.S. HH ratings for Hallmark Holiday-themed Movies (i.e., from .60 to .64). But Total Day ratings mask the audience-drawing power of these movies, especially during the evenings on the weekend when young families gather around the television set during the holiday season. If we isolate the Weekend Primetime Daypart for the Hallmark Channel (a time when so many Holiday Movies air during the last two months of the year), we find very strong ratings.

In November of 2013, for example, the Hallmark Channel topped the Top 10 largest cable networks in HH coverage ratings:

_{Source: Viamedia analysis of Rentrak TV Network Summary Data for the month of November, 2013. HH Ratings are coverage-based (not Total U.S.) for the weekend daypart Saturday/Sunday 8-11pm. Ratings are Live-viewing only.}

While we cannot precisely isolate advertising dollars associated with the Hallmark Channel’s holiday-themed movies, we do have information on the Hallmark Channel in general (for the months of November and December). Overall, 1,000+ local advertisers (in 47 Viamedia markets) invested in Hallmark for the last two months of 2013. Collectively, they upped their commitment to Hallmark (vs. 2012) by +6.4%, purchasing +1.5% more 30-second units at a +4.9% increase in unit rate:

_{Source: Viamedia internal analysis of B.I.G. database (“Who Ordered It”) for the Hallmark Channel for the months of November & December (2013 v 2012) across the 47 markets that had Hallmark Channel ad revenues for both years.}

Unlike many of the other networks and programs that we’ve written about in this space, the Hallmark Channel attracts a very diverse group of advertisers, with no one category representing more than 14% (Auto) of total advertising. Note, as well, the 5% share for political advertising – a sure sign that candidates (and their media consultants) consider Hallmark programming to be a “safe harbor” for their message:

_{Source: Viamedia internal analysis of B.I.G. database (“Who Ordered It”) for the Hallmark Channel for the months of November & December (2013 & 2012 combined). Excludes “Miscellaneous” category.}

Hallmark’s new Holiday Season movies begin airing this Saturday, November 1^st and then run right through to the start of the New Year. And, while not every program will appeal to every household, it’s a pretty safe bet that millions of viewers will be watching some very heart-warming movies as we ring out the old year and ring in the new.

For more information on Viamedia, visit www.viamediatv.com.

– Written by Jonathan Sims, VP Media Research, Viamedia