, known for the family-fare films that have long been associated with the greeting-card empire’s forays into media, intends to add a little tension to the mix by emphasizing mystery dramas starting in the fourth quarter of this year. The network, associated with owner
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Family Networks flagship
, will also change its name to Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.
Marketing efforts will include a new logo and tagline for the network, which launched in 2003 and reaches 53.5 million homes. The revised identification marks will be unveiled in October.
News of the new emphasis on mysteries was
previously reported by Advertising Age
.
The revised network plans in 2015 to introduce a rotation of three different “franchises,” each consisting of three to four movies following the same primary characters and playing out over the course of several months. The network will continue to air original movies, off-network acquired series, and presentations from its award-winning Hallmark Hall of Fame library.
The first of the mystery franchises will launch in early 2015 with “Garage Sale Mystery,”a continuation of a storyline from the original Hallmark Channel movie of the same name that debuted in September 2013. This series of movies will star
. The second movie franchise stars Dylan Neal, who will star in and executive produce “The Gourmet Detective,” based on the series of books by Peter King. The third film series will be announced shortly.
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