Crown Media Holdings, owner of Hallmark Channel, cut its net loss in the fourth quarter as ratings and ad revenues rose.

The company lost $30 million in the quarter, or 29 cents a share, because of interest expense and a writedown on religious programming. It lost $59.8 million, or 57 cents a share, in the fourth quarter of 2005.

Because of the loss of license fees from its film library, revenues fell 3 percent to $85.5 million. Ad revenues rose $28 percent to 452 million and subscriber fees rose 16 percent to $6.2 million.

Programming expenses rose 42 percent, mainly because of a writedown on license fees for programming from the National Interfaith Cable Coalition, which ran the network as Odyssey Channel before it became Hallmark Channel.

For the full year, Crown lost $389 million, or $3.71 a share, compared to $232.8 million, or $2.22 a share.

Hallmark Channel today also reached a multi-year distribution agreement with EchoStar Communications.

(Editor: Horowitz)