"Freeform - the new name of ABC Family"

WTH does "Freeform" even mean in relation to a tv channel? Does that mean they are just going to make it up as they go along?

I was watching Young & Hungry on Netflix and was surprised that that was an ABC Family show!!

I heard they are changing the name to attract more of the late teens/early twenties viewers. Apparently that demographic is turned off by the word "Family", too goodie-goodie or something like that.

Didn't they start as Disney? Then ABC Family? I'm sure the change is just to appeal to an older audience and it sounds like their programming has already moved in that direction.

Oh, and my 7-y.o. said "That's just...a stupid name." OK, maybe you had to be there and know him and see how he looked, but trust me, it was funny.

Made me giggle because the first thing I thought when I saw the name is that it sounded like a feminine hygiene product!

The first time I heard it I was all "What?" Freeform as in they're just making it up as they go along? They definitely haven't been "family" in awhile!

Hate the new name, but the old one bugged me, too, since many shows weren't family-friendly as implied.

I googled the channel and this is what I found.

ABC Family is changing its name.



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The Disney-owned cable channel is undergoing a moniker rebranding that ditches “Family” — a word that’s been part of the network’s identity for nearly 30 years across several previous name changes.



Starting in January, ABC Family will be known as Freeform.



The switch is part of an effort to attract more of what the network calls “Becomers,” viewers between the ages of 14 and 34.



The network’s programming style — led by shows like Pretty Little Liars, The Fosters, and Young and Hungry — will essentially remain the the same.



“For us, this doesn’t feel like a radical depature, this is an evolution,” ABC Family president Tom Ascheim explained to EW. “For the last 10-to-12 years, we’ve been targeting young people, Millennnials, 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?”



The network’s executives decided remain focused on telling stories capturing viewers who were “navigating the wonderful, fun, exciting, and scary time in life when you experience the most firsts – first car, first apartment, first job, first love, first heartbreak – all the firsts that exists between who they are and who they want to become.”



The team polled cable viewers and found ABC Family fans had several positive associations with the channel, but target-demo viewers who did not watch the network were put off by the name. In particular, the word “Family,” which they associated with “family friendly” and “wholesome,” Ascheim said.



“That’s the nub of why we’re changing our name,” Ascheim said. “Like any growing business, we want to keep our core customers satisfied, but also add new ones – and they had a cliched sense of who we are. The word ‘Family’ sounds overly loud to their ears and that makes it a barrier to them coming into our ecosystem.”



In researching a new name, Freeform accomplishes a few different goals the network was striving to hit. The name suggested content that could be viewed on different screens and shared and discussed in multiple ways (ABC Family viewers are big on social media). That viewers no longer just consume content but create it as well was a consideration too. And Freeform, ultimately, was a name that simply generated a positve emotion. “We wanted an emotional response to a name that made people happy,” Ascheim said. “We got an overwhelmingly positive response. Freeform sounds like fun.”

I just want them to bring Gilmore Girls back and STOP the incessant ASPCA, Wounded Warriors, Save the Seals/elephants, Feed the Children, St. Jude, etc. commercials. I am so, so, so grateful for organizations like St. Jude and hope to never need their services. Don't get me wrong and I'm not being crass, but the nonstop heart wrenching commercials from all of these organizations are really over the top. Every.Commercial.Break. Honestly, I think it does more harm than good because it desensitizes people.

They run those commercials because the organizations pay to have their commercials run on that channel. Each time they run the commercial the channel gets paid loads of money.