FOX Family Channel

The American cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and six different name changes) during its history. This article details the network's existence from its founding by the Christian Broadcasting Network to its current ownership by The Walt Disney Company, which renamed ABC Family to Freeform on January 12, 2016.

CBN Satellite Service

The network was founded by Pat Robertson as the CBN Satellite Service (CBN Satellite Network), an arm of his television ministry, the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). When the channel launched on April 29, 1977, it became the first basic cable channel to be transmitted via satellite from its launch and, effectively, the first national basic cable-originated network. Initially, the network offered only religious programs aimed at a Christian audience. The offerings on the CBN Satellite Service during its early years included CBN's flagship news/talk show, ''The 700 Club'' (which aired three times per day every Monday through Friday in the late-morning and at night), along with programs from many notable and lesser-known television evangelists. As a result, a few televangelists began to produce stripped programs to air on the network each weekday. The CBN Satellite Service grew its subscriber base to 10.9 million households by May 1981.

On August 1, 1981, the channel was relaunched as the CBN Cable Network. At that time of the name change, it was concurrently repositioned as an advertiser-supported "family-friendly" entertainment network, although the channel continued to offer religious programs that occupied about a third of its daily schedule. Entertainment programming that aired on the channel during this period included various classic television series (consisting of classic sitcoms from the 1950s and westerns from the 1950s and 1960s such as ''My Little Margie'', ''Wagon Train'', '' The Virginian'' and '' Bachelor Father''), reruns of game shows, older movies, and some family-oriented drama series. CBN Cable also produced its first original series with the relaunch including a weekday-morning talk show, ''US a.m.'' and the faith-based soap opera '' Another Life''.

The network also aired – and was even involved in the production of a few of them – a handful of Christian or family-friendly animated series, including some anime – such as CBN's own co-productions with Japanese animation studio Tatsunoko Production, '' Superbook'' and '' The Flying House'' and the TV pilot sitcom ''Help Wanted;'' the channel also carried English-dubbed versions of ''Honey, Honey'' and '' Leo the Lion''. Religious programming retained a sizeable portion of CBN Cable's schedule; in addition to continuing to run weekday airings of ''The 700 Club'', non-CBN-produced ministry programs were relegated to Saturday and Sunday evenings, and Sunday mornings, encompassing only 22% of the network's programming lineup by 1990.

The channel's decision to mix secular and religious programs within its schedule mirrored the programming format used by the independent television stations that CBN had owned (then based in six markets) at the time of the rebrand. Additional programming that joined the CBN Cable lineup later in the decade included '' Hazel'', ''Father Knows Best'', '' The Big Valley'', and '' Gunsmoke,'' plus foreign acquisitions '' The Campbells'' and '' Butterfly Island''. Under the new format, the national distribution of the CBN Cable Network had grown from 28 million households in May 1985 to 35.8 million in May 1987.

The Family Channel

On August 1, 1988, the word "Family" was incorporated into the channel's name to better reflect its programming format, rebranding as The CBN Family Channel; shortly after the new name was adopted, however, references to CBN within its name began to be excised in on-air continuity announcements and print promotions for its programs (with the exception of the initialized reference to its parent ministry featured within its logo), referring to it as simply "The Family Channel". The logo that the channel used until the sale to News Corporation consisted of a blue ring with the article "The" (accompanied by the "CBN" initials as well until 1990) placed on top and "Channel" at the bottom with a blended yellow and red "Family" script font overlaid on the ring and an orange/yellow striped sphere. The channel's promotional advertisements were also revamped as well, featuring a series of promos known as "Family Moments," depicting situations in which families spent time with each other (such as a family playing checkers, a grandfather bonding with his grandson, and a woman hugging her husband on their wedding day).

By 1990, the network had grown too profitable to remain under the CBN banner without endangering the Christian Broadcasting Network's non-profit status (federal regulations enforced by the Internal Revenue Service prohibit non-profit organizations from owning for-profit entities that account for a substantial portion of its activities). On January 8 of that year, CBN spun off The CBN Family Channel to International Family Entertainment Inc. (a newly formed company founded by Pat Robertson's eldest son and CBN Family network president, Timothy Robertson, and operated as a joint venture between the Robertson family and John C. Malone, owner of Denver-based cable television provider Tele-Communications Inc. and multimedia firm Liberty Media) for $250 million in convertible securities. The Robertsons paid $150,000 to acquire 4.5 million shares and a controlling ownership interest in IFE, with Pat and Tim subsequently purchasing an additional 1.5 million shares. Consequently, The Family Channel became the official name for the channel on September 15, 1990, dropping all remaining references to the "CBN" moniker.

As a stipulation of the sale to International Family Entertainment, the channel was required to continue to carry ''The 700 Club'' (a stipulation that Pat Robertson also imposed when the channel was sold to Fox Family Worldwide in 1997 and then to The Walt Disney Company in 2001. This time-buy clause (which also mandates that the program air at suitable time slots that would allow it to attract decent viewership) was the only requirement that Robertson included in sales terms for the network to its subsequent owners. However, public assumption had conflated for many years that this sole existing stipulation was one of two that he included following the sale of the network by CBN; another contractual clause that Robertson was alleged to have added in the sale agreement to Fox required any future secular owners to maintain the word "Family" in the network's name in perpetuity. When Disney announced on October 6, 2015 that it would rebrand the network as Freeform, ABC Family president Tom Ascheim noted that there was no record of such a clause ever having been in place (although some published sources – including a reference in James B. Stewart's book on former chairman/CEO Michael Eisner's tenure at eventual owner Disney, ''DisneyWar'' – have only stated insofar that a clause including "Family" as a required part of the name was incorporated into previous carriage agreements for the channel with cable and satellite providers).

By 1989, the channel was seen in 47.3 million households, with its distribution jumping to 54 million homes (or 92% of all U.S. households with a cable television subscription) by 1992. At that point, the 1950s sitcoms and westerns that had long been featured on its lineup were scaled back, in favor of more recent drama series as well as cartoons and later, game shows (with a mix of both original programs like ''Trivial Pursuit'' and '' Shop 'til You Drop'', and reruns of older game shows such as the Jim Lange version of ''Name That Tune'' and ''Let's Make a Deal''). In fact, the channel's weekday afternoon game show block consisted of the aforementioned programs along with the later episodes of '' Split Second'' and other shows specifically produced for the channel (such as '' Shopping Spree'', '' Small Talk'', '' Wait 'til You Have Kids'' and a revival of '' It Takes Two'', hosted by Dick Clark). The Family Channel also began airing more recent scripted series – among them '' Big Brother Jake'', ''The Adventures of the Black Stallion'', '' Bordertown'', '' Rin Tin Tin: K-9 Cop'', ''Maniac Mansion'' and '' The New Zorro'', as well as the family-friendly music video series ''Videosyncrasy'' – many of which aired as part of "The Positive Place", a weekly block on Sunday early-evenings that ran from 1991 to 1994.

On September 11, 1989, The CBN Family Channel launched "Fun Town," a daily children's program block featuring content from DIC Enterprises. Under its programming deal with the company, DIC also planned to produce four specials per quarter that would air on the channel, including holiday specials and a film version of the animated series ''The New Archies''; however, DIC never produced any specials for the channel. In 1992, the "Fun Town" block was rebranded as "Fam TV".

In March 1992, the Christian Broadcasting Network sold its interest in International Family Entertainment, when the company announced plans to become publicly traded, selling 6.66 million shares valued at $100 million, at a price between $14 and $16 per share (however, Pat Robertson retained ownership of 3.6 million shares in IFE until the company's sale to News Corporation); IFE would also sell 3.33 million shares of stock to the public. In January 1993, IFE purchased TVS Entertainment, a British broadcaster which owned MTM Enterprises, for $68.5 million.

That year, International Family Entertainment and Flextech jointly launched an international version of The Family Channel in the United Kingdom; on February 3, 1997, that channel eventually relaunched as the game show-dedicated network Challenge (an outgrowth of "Family Challenge Weekend", a weekend game show block that debuted on The Family Channel U.K. in October 1996), following IFE's sale of its 61% controlling interest to Flextech in April 1996. In addition, in the United States, The Family Channel attempted to launch a spin-off network with a very similar format to that which the U.K. Family Channel evolved into; The Game Channel was intended as an interactive game show-oriented channel that was also set to launch in 1993. International Family Entertainment launched another cable channel, the Cable Health Club, on October 4, 1993, which was made available to cable providers without a carriage fee; the lineage of that network – which was later renamed FitTV – is traceable to the current-day Discovery Communications-owned network Discovery Life.

The network gained more visibility when, for a four-year period from 1994 to 1997, it served as the primary sponsor of Ted Musgrave's #16 Ford Thunderbird in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. The Family Channel ventured further into original programming in May 1996, with the premiere of its first original made-for-TV movie, ''Night of the Twisters'' (loosely based on the Ivy Ruckman book of the same name and co-produced with corporate sister MTM Enterprises). During the mid-1990s, children's programming was slowly removed from The Family Channel's schedule, before disappearing altogether in 1997. As The Family Channel, the network attracted an older audience outside of the demographic of adults ages 18 to 49 traditionally sought by advertisers; only about one-third of homes with viewers that watched Family included children or youths.

Fox Family

Purchase by Fox Kids Worldwide

In early 1997, Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corporation entered into discussions to purchase a stake in The Family Channel with International Family Entertainment as a partner, seeking to bring it under its Fox Kids joint venture with Haim Saban. On June 11, 1997, News Corporation purchased International Family Entertainment for $1.9 billion. The latter company's assets were split within News Corporation's portfolio: The Family Channel was merged into Fox Kids Worldwide, a joint venture between majority owners News Corporation and Saban (which each owned a 49.5% share in the company), and media investment firm Allen & Company (which owned the remaining 1%), which was subsequently renamed Fox Family Worldwide following the completion of the acquisition.

The Family Channel was renamed Fox Family Channel – though on-air promotions typically referred to the network as just "Fox Family" – on August 15, 1998 With the change in ownership, Fox Family's operations were also migrated from the Christian Broadcasting Network's headquarters in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and integrated with the operations of some of News Corporation's other cable channels in Los Angeles. The MTM Enterprises library was assumed by 20th Television.

Early programming

When Fox purchased the channel, programmers sought to reposition it to target a dual audience: children in daytime, families at night. Once the network became Fox Family, the new owners dropped nearly all of the programming that it aired under The Family Channel brand – which at that point included reruns of series such as '' Batman'', '' Bonanza'', ''The Rifleman'', ''The Carol Burnett Show'', ''Hawaii Five-O'', '' Christy'', ''Rescue 911'' and '' Diagnosis: Murder'' – and replaced them with shows that appealed to a younger demographic. Rich Cronin, who was appointed as the network's president and CEO, said regarding the channel's audience refocusing, "our focus is on younger families, more suburban or urban, more plugged into pop culture". Fox Family was obligated to continue airing ''The 700 Club'' as part of the sale, but the program's airings were scaled back to two times each day (though the sale agreement required the channel to air it three times daily, once each in the morning, late-evening and overnight hours), with the evening broadcast being moved out of prime time, and pushed one hour later to 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time (from 10:00 p.m.). Programming that appealed to children and teenagers was also greatly expanded on the channel. Fox Family added more animated series to the lineup, many of which came from the Fox Kids program library. At launch, Fox Family had four themed kids daytime blocks: "Morning Scramble" (all ages), "The Captain's Treasure House" (pre-schoolers), "Tic Tac Toons" (all-animation; this block was renamed to "Toon-A Casserole" by the time the channel relaunched) and "The Basement". Original series were programmed from six to nine at night targeting adults followed by a movie. Original programming was beefed up by $500 million, to be spent on 20 original movies and 680 episodes of original series.

In 1999, Fox spun off two digital cable channels from Fox Family, the Boyz Channel and the Girlz Channel, which both contained programming content targeted at the respective genders; both channels ceased operations after one year on the air in August 2000, due to a combination of very limited national carriage by cable providers (Boyz Channel and Girlz Channel were each carried in some 100,000 homes in an era when digital cable television was in its infancy) and the controversy that developed over the gender-segregated channels.

Major League Baseball

In April 2000, Fox Family began airing Major League Baseball games in prime time on most weeks during the league's regular season, on an alternating basis with then-sister network FX. The network – which acquired the rights from Fox Sports Net, which aired the weekly telecasts across its regional sports networks (except in markets where the nationally televised game conflicts with scheduled sporting events involving local teams on the individual FSN outlet) from 1997 to 1999 – usually ran the games on either Thursday or Saturday nights.

Starting with the 2001 season, the network also carried games from the first round of the MLB playoffs, the Division Series, which did not air on Fox. Among the games that aired on Fox Family included one between the San Francisco Giants and the Houston Astros on October 4, 2001, in which Barry Bonds hit his 70th home run of the season, tying the all-time single season record that Mark McGwire had set only three years earlier (Bonds would break the record the following night).

''The 700 Club''

As part of a stipulation negotiated into International Family Entertainment's sale agreement with Fox Entertainment Group by Pat Robertson, Fox Family aired ''The 700 Club'' twice every weekday: a live broadcast at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time, and a repeat at 11:00 p.m. Eastern. In addition, through other programming requirements stipulated by CBN through the deal, the network also aired a half-hour companion talk show serving as ''The 700 Club''s weekday morning lead-in, ''Living the Life'' (which was replaced in 2010 by ''The 700 Club Interactive''), as well as occasional weekend-long CBN telethons (which it continues to do as ABC Family/Freeform, with the latter now airing in the week before the Super Bowl each year). , ''The 700 Club'' airs three times per day Monday through Fridays, with the existing 10:00 a.m. live telecast and 11:00 p.m. rebroadcast having been joined by an additional repeat at 3:00 a.m. Eastern Time as part of the network's paid programming block, which runs from 2:00 a.m. until 7:00 a.m. A CBN spokesperson has stated “''The 700 Club'' will continue to air now and in perpetuity on the network, no matter what the name.”

Fox Family Films

Fox created a film division for the channel, Fox Family Films, which produced motion pictures targeted at different age groups, mainly towards children; the titles included '' Addams Family Reunion'', which aired during Fox's inauguration of the channel under the initial format as Fox Family, and '' Digimon: The Movie'', which was compiled from several Japanese '' Digimon'' short films. Aimed a more teenage audience, Fox Family Films created '' Ice Angel'', a made-for-cable movie about a hockey player who is reborn as a female synchronized skater, as well as the thriller ''Don't Look Behind You''. Fox Family also aired a wide array of Saban Entertainment-produced movies as well as many direct-to-video films from 20th Century Fox (including ''Richie Rich's Christmas Wish'', '' Casper: A Spirited Beginning'' and '' Like Father, Like Santa'').

In August 1999, the channel experienced its highest total viewership at that point in its history, with the premiere of the made-for-TV romantic/family comedy ''Au Pair''.

31 Nights of Halloween

In October 1998, Fox Family introduced one of its most successful programming concepts, "The 13 Days of Halloween," a two-week-long block beginning each year on October 19, leading into Halloween on October 31. This block – which was subsequently rebranded as the "13 Nights of Halloween" in 2002, under Disney/ABC ownership – introduced the original comedy series ''The New Addams Family'', the unscripted series ''Scariest Places on Earth'' (hosted by ''Exorcist'' star Linda Blair, focusing on places infamous for frightening urban legends) and some new movies such as ''Casper Meets Wendy'' (the latter of which would become a staple of the block for several years, particularly during the years in which Hilary Duff, who made her acting debut in the film, starred in the Disney Channel series ''Lizzie McGuire''). The block was temporarily suspended in 2003, following an overhaul of the channel's programming management under Disney. But it returned in 2004. A few years later, the 2002 live-action film adaptation of ''Scooby-Doo'' became part of its annual Halloween lineup. This continues to be one of the most successful programming blocks to date for the channel as ABC Family, and will be carried over under the Freeform brand. On May 15, 2018, Freeform renamed the block to 31 Nights of Halloween, meaning that the block now starts on October 1st and lasts throughout the whole month of October. With Disney's acquisition of Fox the following year, the channel, having already added the show itself, has also included marathons of ''The Simpsons long-running Halloween-centric sub-series Treehouse of Horror in the block.

25 Days of Christmas

Two years before the launch of its Halloween programming lineup, in 1996, what was then The Family Channel launched the "25 Days of Christmas", a four-week holiday-themed program block running annually during the month of December, formally starting on December 1 and continuing until Christmas Day on December 25. The block was carried over to Fox Family under News Corporation ownership, with a staple of the lineup being Christmas-themed specials from the Rankin-Bass library (among them, '' The Little Drummer Boy'' and ''Santa Claus Is Coming to Town''), although it also features mostly holiday-themed theatrically-released and original made-for-TV movies, and other original programming. The "25 Days of Christmas" continued to air on the rebranded ABC Family following the sale to Disney in 2001, and expanded into include a sub-block that runs during late November, "Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas", beginning in 2007. On May 15, 2018, Freeform renamed the Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas block to Kickoff to Christmas, meaning that the block now starts on November 1st and lasts throughout the whole month of November.

Change in visual style

On September 1, 2000, Fox Family adopted a new visual style, as part of an attempt to refocus its programming to attract an older audience. While in essence, it maintained a family-oriented format, the network began to feature some original and acquired programming aimed at adults during the early evening and in prime time. At that time, Fox Family purchased the syndication rights to the CBS series ''Early Edition'', and two ABC series: ''My So-Called Life'' and '' Step by Step'' (the latter of which aired on the channel until March 2010 as ABC Family). The channel also acquired the short-lived comedy-drama series ''Freaks and Geeks'', including episodes of the show that had not previously aired as a result of its 2000 cancellation by NBC, and broadcast more "romantic comedy"-themed original movies.

Keeping kids and families in mind, the channel introduced the original series '' State of Grace'' (a half-hour period dramedy set in the 1960s, centering around a pre-teen from a conservative Jewish-American family and her boisterous best friend, raised by a free-wheeling divorced mother) and a programming block for teens, ''Fox Family's Summer High School Countdown'' (which introduced the Swedish pop group Play to American audiences). However, the idea was unsuccessful, as a year later, Fox Family was sold to The Walt Disney Company, and ''State of Grace'' was only renewed for one more season before it was cancelled.

Declining ratings

Under the control of Murdoch and Saban, Fox Family saw its overall viewership slide from 10th to 17th place in the Nielsen cable ratings as a result of an increasingly competitive race for younger viewers (with the channel facing brisk competition from established children's cable networks Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and eventual corporate sister Disney Channel), and the bickering over ownership between News Corporation and Saban Entertainment founder and CEO Haim Saban, who eventually opted to exercise an option given by News Corporation to have the company buy out his 49.5% interest in Fox Family Worldwide on December 21, 2000. Some observers believe that the network chased away some of its older viewers when, without notice, News Corporation/Saban removed all of the older programming that it aired as The Family Channel – especially western reruns, which made up the bulk of its weekday and weekend schedule, dating back to its existence under the CBN Cable Network identity – in their effort to contemporize the channel, and never really replaced the core audience due to the absence of planning on how to retain that segment of the network's pre-acquisition viewer base, while simultaneously attracting new viewers. As a result, prime time viewership declined by 35% over the course of Fox Family's three-year tenure under Murdoch/Saban ownership.

It is also suggested that News Corporation hired more employees than were needed, and when Disney took ownership, as many as 500 people were laid off (this was also at a time when The Walt Disney Company itself was downsizing, as the company had laid off 400 other employees from its failed Go Network web portal). Fox Family also used many freelancers for certain aspects of the channel's operations and programming, such as its short-lived "block jocks" (which were on-air hosts that the channel hired to present its afternoon children's programs); most of the monikers for the network – including the slogans "You Belong" and "It's Electric" – were created by freelance artists.

ABC Family

Purchase by Disney and early attempts at changing the network's focus

On July 23, 2001, News Corporation and Saban announced that Fox Family Worldwide Inc. would be sold to The Walt Disney Company for $2.9 billion; consequently, the unit would be renamed ABC Family Worldwide Inc. following the sale and integration into the company's Disney–ABC Cable Networks Group division. (The channel, as Freeform, would be reunited with three of its former sister cable channels under News Corporation ownership— FX, FX Movie Channel and National Geographic—through Disney's 2019 purchase of 21st Century Fox's film and non-broadcast, entertainment-based television assets.) The sale to Disney included ownership of Saban Entertainment, including most of the Fox Kids programming library, ironically resulting in the Fox Broadcasting Company losing the rights to its own children's programming to the owner of one of its network competitors, ABC (which Disney had purchased in February 1996, through its acquisition of the network's corporate parent Capital Cities/ABC, which changed its corporate name to ABC, Inc. upon becoming a Disney subsidiary; Fox would subsequently enter into an outsourcing agreement with 4Kids Entertainment to produce its children's programming blocks, a relationship that lasted until December 2008, when the network discontinued its remaining Saturday morning block, 4Kids TV). The sale was completed on October 24, 2001.

On November 10, 2001, the channel was renamed ABC Family; the on-air look that it adopted in its final year under Murdoch/Saban ownership as Fox Family was modified for the newly rebranded network in the meantime (including its logo, which was altered to swap out the vertically aligned Fox wordmark placed on the left parenthetical fringe with ABC's legacy "circle" logo, and production music), although it would begin using new continuity announcers. The network also revamped its programming lineup following the Disney acquisition. Partly to reduce competition with new sister network Disney Channel, which launched one year and nine months after what was then CBN Cable adopted a family-focused entertainment format, the network heavily scaled back the amount of children's programming on its schedule, relegating the handful of programs that were retained to the morning hours. With this, the remaining Fox Kids shows that were on ABC Family's schedule became part of the "ABC Family Action Block", a new two-hour-long block of action-oriented animated series (which was renamed " Jetix" in February 2004) that aired on weekday mornings, shows aimed at a broader family audience as well as those aimed specifically at teenagers, adults or both audiences also replaced the more kid-oriented shows in afternoon timeslots (Disney Channel simultaneously underwent its own demographic shift, dropping its remaining family-oriented programming with the September 2002 removal of its nightly vintage programming block, Vault Disney, in order to focus firmly on children and younger teenagers, a demographic it began gravitating toward when it transitioned into a basic cable channel in April 1997). The network also relocated its operations to The Walt Disney Company's headquarters in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank, California.

Production responsibilities for the network's baseball playoff coverage that originated during its run as Fox Family were assumed by another of ABC Family's new sister networks, ESPN. While Division Series games remained on ABC Family for one additional year due to contractual issues, the regular season game telecasts migrated to ESPN outright beginning with the 2002 Major League Baseball season. A deal was later struck to move the playoff games to ESPN as well, starting with the 2003 season. Although the games aired on Disney-owned networks, Fox retained the exclusive right to negotiate a renewal of the contract after the 2006 season; Fox Sports chose not to renew the Division Series contract, with TBS acquiring those rights in 2007 as part of its new baseball contract.

The channel's sale to Disney, however, would be considered one of the biggest strategic errors made during the latter years of Michael Eisner's tenure as president of the company. No one within ABC's management staff was consulted by Walt Disney Company executives about the company's plans to purchase Fox Family, with the acquisition being conducted by Disney's strategic planning department. The company's original plan for the channel was to use it for the primary purpose of showing reruns of ABC programming; however, this was conceptually impossible as ABC did not hold the syndication rights to the majority of its own programs, with the exception of those that were produced by its corporate parent's television production divisions, Walt Disney Television and Touchstone Television, which had their distribution rights held by Buena Vista Television

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