Charles Stanford Promoted to Executive Vice President, Legal and Business Affairs, and General Counsel of Crown Media Holdings.

Business Editors

LOS ANGELES & DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 23, 2001

Charles Stanford has been promoted to executive vice president, legal and business affairs, and general counsel of Crown Media Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: CRWN) (AEX: CRWN). The announcement was made today by David Evans, president and chief executive officer of Crown Media Holdings; and Lana Corbi, chief operating officer of Crown Media Holdings.

Stanford will be responsible for directing all corporate legal and business affairs activities for Crown Media Holdings and its subsidiaries. These subsidiaries include Crown Media United States, LLC, which operates Odyssey Network in the U.S. (scheduled to become the Hallmark Channel on August 5th), Crown Media International, Inc., which distributes the Hallmark Channel in more than 100 countries across the globe, and its recently launched new media division Crown Interactive. Stanford, who joined the company last year as senior vice president, business and legal affairs, will continue to be based in Crown Media Holdings' Denver offices and report jointly to Mr. Evans and Ms. Corbi.

Regarding the announcement, Mr. Evans, stated, "Since Charlie joined us, Crown Media Holdings has enjoyed significant growth. He has played a major role guiding the company through the many transactional matters required to expand at the pace we've grown and I am delighted to reward his contributions to the betterment of Crown Media Holdings with this well deserved promotion."

Ms. Corbi, noted, "Charlie is a valuable resource whose superior counsel on the domestic and international fronts is of the highest standard. It's been a pleasure working with him and we are grateful to have an executive with his background and expertise on our side."

Stanford joined Crown Media Holdings from ABC, Inc., where at the time of his departure he was vice president, legal and business affairs, cable and new media.

Throughout his 23-year tenure with the network, he also headed the legal and business affairs groups for its broadcast and production divisions, as well as ABC Sports. In addition, Stanford has been an adjunct professor at New York University, teaching courses on entertainment and music law.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota, a Juris Doctor degree from Suffolk University and his Masters of Law degree from New York University.

Crown Media Holdings, Inc. owns and operates pay television channels dedicated to high quality, broad appeal, entertainment programming. The company currently operates and distributes two cable channels: the Odyssey Network, scheduled to become the Hallmark Channel on August 5th in the United States, and the Hallmark Channel in more than 100 international markets. The combined channels have nearly 68 million subscribers worldwide. Significant investors in Crown Media Holdings include Hallmark Entertainment, Inc., a subsidiary of Hallmark Cards, Inc., Liberty Media Corp., EM.TV & Merchandising AG (parent company of The Jim Henson Company), the National Interfaith Cable Coalition and J. P. Morgan Partners (BHCA), L. P.