From Networks to Netflix by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2018-01-03T00:00:00+00:00

Freeform

Shaking off the Family Brand within a Conglomerate Family

Barbara Selznick

In 2016, ABC Family changed its name to Freeform as part of a long rebranding process informed by industrial imperatives faced by the network’s owner, the Walt Disney Company. The new name underscores the goal to ground the brand position of this network in relation to Disney’s other broadcast and cable outlets, and solidify a clear but fluid target audience that will not “age out” of the network and its programming. Similar to the way that Disney Channel appeals to children at a particular stage of life (tweens),1 Freeform targets what Disney labeled “becomers,” young people who are becoming who they are going to be. Or, as Freeform president Tom Ascheim explains, it’s the age range that falls “from your first kiss to your first kid” (Barnes 2015). The name change to Freeform and the identification of a new target audience is part of a long process of branding that reveals a great deal about the importance of particular audiences to advertisers and media companies in the face of contemporary sociocultural and technological shifts as well as new viewing practices.

The shift from ABC Family to Freeform specifically highlights fluctuating ideas about family viewing in contemporary times. The Walt Disney Co. took over the family network in the midst of social, economic, and technological circumstances that potentially weakened the value of a “family” network. Was it still possible to create programming that a family would watch together but that also spoke to the identity and values of the viewers that advertisers sought? As will be discussed, ABC Family pursued the teen and young adult Millennial viewers who were born roughly between the early 1980s and early 2000s. These viewers could be encouraged to develop fierce loyalty to brands that helped them shape their emerging identities. In terms of television watching, Millennials were imagined to be close to their families but also solitary television viewers who used various platforms to consume media. In addition to being an advertiser-friendly target demographic, this teen/young adult audience might allow ABC Family to fit into the already layered structure of the Disney/ABC conglomerate—if the connection to “family” could be successfully negotiated.

Throughout its existence, the network that is now Freeform went by several names as it changed corporate owners. The network began in the 1970s as part of the Christian Broadcast Network owned by Pat Robertson. The network’s most famous show, The 700 Club, still airs on Freeform. The religious program’s continuation on the network in perpetuity was part of the contract when the network was sold to News Corp. in 1997 (when it became Fox Family) and again when News Corp. sold the network to Disney/ABC in 2001.2 Throughout its time as The Family Channel, Fox Family, and ABC Family, the network chased different audiences with a range of programming. In 2001, the Walt Disney Company bought Fox Worldwide, which included Fox Family, for approximately $3 billion along with the assumption of approximately $2 billion in debt (“Disney Buys Fox Family” 2001).

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