RHI Entertainment

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RHI Entertainment is an American producer of television movies and miniseries, founded in the 1980s by Robert Halmi Jr. and Robert Halmi Sr.

Hallmark Cards originally purchased the company from the Halmis in 1994. Under Hallmark, the company was known as Hallmark Entertainment until 2006, when the Halmis, along with affiliates of Kelso & Company, reacquired the company, renaming it "RHI", after the founders' names. [1]

Also in 2006, ION Media Networks, the parent company of ION Television, announced "an exclusive programming alliance" with RHI. Under this agreement, RHI will program the 7-11 p.m. ET/PT time periods on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights for two years starting July 1, 2007, under the umbrella title The RHI Movie Weekend. The agreement also makes way for the U.S. broadcast premieres of at least six RHI productions each year. [2]

In 2007, RHI began offering premieres of its films to digital cable customers of Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Cox Cable and Comcast, via the video on demand service. Also that year, RHI licensed a number of its new movies, miniseries and back catalog titles to global subscribers of Apple's iTunes service.