Freeform: The New ABC Family

ABC Family is an extremely popular channel on television, being the home to programs like Pretty Little Liars, The Fosters, and Chasing Life. After thirty years, ABC Family has announced that they will be changing their name to Freeform in January 2016.

Freeform wants to engage an audience of what they call “becomers”, which includes the younger spectrum of Millennials and high school aged viewers. In the press relief the station stated that “The audience’s identity and experience are fluid as they explore endless possibilities and their passions take shape.” Additionally, the station adds the fact that “in five years, millennials will be less than half the [advertising] target”. Still they aim to attract an audience of ages in between 14 to 34.

The station chose to pick the name Freeform because elusiveness is what the station found alluring. “The audience’s experience is as fluid and as freeform as the name” said the press release.

Viewers do not have to worry about the discontinuation of their favorite shows,  Pretty Little Liars and The Fosters will be shown on the new network.

ABC Family president Tom Ascheim said that the change is about the growth of the network. “For us, this doesn’t feel like a radical departure, this is an evolution,” he told Entertainment Weekly in October, “For the last 10-to-12 years, we’ve been targeting young people, millennials, and then something happened. Millennials started getting older. The oldest ones are nearly 40. So do we follow millennials or stay with the ‘life stage’ that got us here?”