Hallmark Kids & Family

Hallmark Kids & Family is an American digital cable and satellite television channel owned by. The channel launched on September 1, 2017, and airs programming in dayparts targeting preschool, youth, and family audiences respectively.

History
Hallmark Kids & Family launched on September 1, 2017. Hallmark wanted to establish a channel that would compete with, and , and to a lesser extent ; the channel launched eight days before preschool network Sprout re-launched as , another competing channel. The network would offer programming in dayparts targeting preschool, youth, and family audiences respectively. Hallmark hired Maureen Friesinger — who had previously served as President of Children's & Family Programming for the RKO Network and as a production executive for Discovery Kids/The Hub — as the network's chief creative officer.

The network would launch with a slate of original non-scripted series, including Crayola Art Challenge. Crown Media intended to make "significant" investments in original content for Hallmark Kids & Family, including original scripted programming, movie wheel series and original standalone movies. As part of the launch, Crown Media acquired the U.S. television rights to the Redwall franchise's animated installments, including both past entries and all current and future animated entries in the franchise, with Matthias: A Tale of Redwall as one of the network's first newly-produced series.

Programming
Original programs produced for the network include the game shows Crayola Art Challenge, The Great Christmas Tree Challenge, I Wanna Be A Superhero and I Wanna Be A Warrior of Redwall. The channel also airs shows produced by Hallmark Media (some of which were originally produced for other networks) and has acquired and co-produced programs with international partners. The channel also airs syndicated programming, including re-runs of series that are no longer in production.

Since its launch, Hallmark Kids & Family has been the "American television home" of the Redwall franchise's animated installments, with the network counting Redwall: Dibbun Days, the franchise's first preschool series, and Redwall: Abbey Caretakers, the franchise's first adult comedy animated series, as among its original programs, and airing one or more Redwall miniseries and several Redwall movies throughout the year.

Chief Creative Officer Maureen Friesinger's past with Discovery Family has resulted in the network picking up or reviving a number of productions that channel ran as Discovery Kids and The Hub. In January 2019, the network began airing reruns of Tutenstein and Grossology, two series run by Discovery Kids. The network picked up the revival of Endurance in mid-2022 after cancelled it after one season while it was midway through production of a follow-up due to the  merger. In October 2022, Endurance: El Yunque began airing.

In September 2018, the network began airing reruns of Series 1–12 of Thomas & Friends, later progressing to Series 13–25 in 2020. On February 7, 2021, Hallmark Kids & Family made history as the first American network to air the series in full, concluding the series with the finale "Thomas' Animal Friends". Hallmark Kids & Family continued rerunning the series by starting over with Series 1 on February 15, 2021 and has continued to do so since.

Original movies
Like its sister channels, Hallmark Kids & Family offers original movies, having produced both standalone films and films for wheel series. Hallmark Kids & Family premiered its' first movie, Drivin' Everybody Crazy, in September 2017, and its first wheel series, Monday Night Movies, in September 2018.

Wheel series

 * Monday Night Movies is a movie wheel series that began in September 2018. Airing on Monday nights, the original movie series were Rainbow Brite Adventures, Backyard Mysteries and My Family Road Trip. In September 2020, a new movie series, Stories of Redwall, was added.
 * Hallmark and WWE Present is a movie wheel series started in January 2020. The Sunday night movie wheel series is produced in partnership with WWE Studios and MarVista Entertainment, and features various WWE Superstars, Legends and/or Hall of Famers in lead roles. The original movie series were One Big Family (starring ) and Junior Detective Agency (starring ).

Animal special franchise
In 2022, the annual Kitten Bowl was moved to Hallmark Kids & Family from the main Hallmark Channel, with and  as the new hosts, replacing  (who left to host 's similar Great American Rescue Bowl event). The same year, the channel aired the Kitten World Cup, with the "opening and closing ceremonies" counterprogrammed against those of the, short "matches" aired as interstitial programming throughout the duration of the World Cup and with the "final match" counterprogrammed against the World Cup Final.