Freeform

Freeform is a cable channel owned by Disney ABC Cable Networks. It was originally founded in 1977 as The CBN Cable Network by Evangelical minister Pat Robertson, as extension to his television ministry, over time the network started airing less and less religious programming. In 1988 to reflect, the change in format, the channel changed its name to The Family Channel. By the year 1990, CBN spun off the network, because it had grown too profitable for the ministry. In 1997, News Corporation, owners of the Fox television network and Saban Entertainment bought the network and changed the network to Fox Family Channel the next year. In 2002, ABC bought the channel and gave it the name ABC Family and was rebranded under its current name Freeform on January 12, 2016.

Programming Stunts
Annually, Freeform  provides two major programming stunts, "The 13 Nights of Halloween", which runs from October 19 through 31, and the "25 Days of Christmas", running from December 1 through Christmas Day, which have been a part of the channel since the "Fox Family" days. In addition, prior to the 25 Days of Christmas, the network has added a "Countdown to 'The 25 Days of Christmas'", running about two weeks before the event begins, running through Thanksgiving. This is a list of television programs carried by Freeform:

Current

 * Pretty Little Liars (2010-present)
 * Switched at Birth (2011-present)
 * Baby Daddy (2012-present)
 * The Fosters (2013-present)
 * Young & Hungry (2014-present)
 * Freak Out (2014-present)
 * Becoming Us (2015-present)
 * Job or No Job (2015-present)
 * Next Step Realty: NYC (2015-present)
 * StartupU (2015-present)
 * Monica the Medium (2015-present)
 * The Muppet Show (1976-1981, 2016-present)
 * Muppets Tonight (1996-1998, 2016-present)
 * The Jim Henson Show (1989, 2016-present)

Former (as ABC Family)

 * Flint the Time Detective (2001-2002)
 * So Little Time (2001-2002)
 * The Zack Files (2001-2002)
 * State of Grace (2001-2002)
 * Scariest Places on Earth (2001-2006)
 * Da Möb (2001-2002)
 * Edgemont (2001-2005)
 * The Brendan Leonard Show (2003)
 * Knock First (2003)
 * Switched! (2003-2004)
 * Brat Camp (2004)
 * Power Rangers Dino Thunder (2004)
 * Switched Up (2004)
 * Kicked Out (2005)
 * Las Vegas Garden of Love (2005)
 * Power Rangers S.P.D. (2005)
 * Venus and Serena: For Real (2005)
 * Beautiful People (2005-2006)
 * Whose Line Is It Anyway? (2005-2007)
 * Wildfire (2005-2008)
 * Back on Campus (2006)
 * Three Moons Over Milford (2006)
 * Falcon Beach (2006-2007)
 * Kyle XY (2006-2009)
 * Lincoln Heights (2007-2009)
 * Slacker Cats (2007-2009)
 * Greek (2007-2011)
 * The Middleman (2008)
 * The Secret Life of an American Teenager (2008-2013)
 * Roommates (2009)
 * Ruby & The Rockits (2009)
 * 10 Things I Hate About You (2009-2010)
 * Make It or Break It (2009-2012)
 * Huge (2010)
 * Melissa & Joey (2010-2015)
 * The Nine Lives of Chloe King (2011)
 * State of Georgia (2011)
 * The Lying Game (2011-2013)
 * Beverly Hills Nannies (2012)
 * Jane by Design (2012)
 * Bunheads (2012-2013)
 * Dancing Fools (2013)
 * Spell-Mageddon (2013)
 * The Vineyard (2013)
 * Ravenswood (2013-2014)
 * Twisted (2013-2014)
 * Alice in Arabia (2014)
 * Chasing Life (2014-2015)
 * Mystery Girls (2014)

Disney films aired on Freeform

 * Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
 * Pinocchio (1940)
 * Dumbo (1941)
 * Cinderella (1950)
 * Alice in Wonderland (1951)
 * Lady and the Tramp (1955)
 * Sleeping Beauty (1959)
 * Mary Poppins (1964)
 * Robin Hood (1973)
 * The Fox and the Hound (1981)
 * The Little Mermaid (1989)
 * Beauty and the Beast (1991)
 * Aladdin (1992)
 * The Lion King (1994)
 * Pocahontas (1995)
 * Toy Story (1995)
 * The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
 * Hercules (1997)
 * Mulan (1998)
 * A Bug's Life (1998)
 * Tarzan (1999)
 * Toy Story 2 (1999)
 * Finding Nemo (2003)
 * The Incredibles (2004)
 * Cars (2006)
 * Up (2009)
 * The Princess and the Frog (2009)
 * Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

Criticism
Since Feeform is a semi-religious and semi-family-oriented network it has often been criticized for it's variety of programming. Many shows on ABC Family have episodes that either deal with teen-drinking (Boy Meets World and Still Standing) or teenage pregnancy (The Secret Life of the American Teenager). Freeform encourages concerned parents to control what their children watch. In fact, Freeform will always put up a Disclaimer on TV-14 programs and movies with disturbing images such as The Sixth Sense.

During its time as ABC Family, Disney was considering changing the channel's name to XYZ to reflect the programming changes, but could not due to an agreement with Robertson, that "Family" should always remain the channel's name.

Rebrand as Freeform
In a December 3, 2014 article in Variety, reports suggested that ABC Family executives were proposing a reboot of the network that would occur in 2015 at the earliest, which included a renaming of the channel, a redesigned graphics package (replacing the one in use since 2006) or an expansion of programming that appeals more toward a millennial-skewing audience – as opposed to families or teenagers – among the options. During the channel's 2015–16 upfront presentation on April 14, 2015, ABC Family executives announced that it would establish a focus on teenagers and young adults between the ages of 14 and 34 – a group representatives termed "becomers", instead of the standard "millennials".

On October 6, 2015, Disney–ABC Television Group announced that ABC Family would change its name to Freeform on January 1, 2016, with the rebrand – which kicked off with an extensive branding campaign launched on that date of the announcement and will encompass the network's popular "13 Nights of Halloween" and 25 Days of Christmas" blocks – coinciding with the winter premieres of the network's new and existing original series. Public assumption was that such a name change would be negotiably impossible due to an alleged stipulation enforced by CBN in sale agreements since the initial acquisition by International Family Entertainment that the channel contain the word "Family" in the name permanently, regardless as to who owns the network (as proven by the failed relaunch as XYZ); in the name change announcement, network president Tom Ascheim never made reference to the "Family" brand clause supposedly contained within the sale agreement, leaving it unclear as to whether or not the clause actually existed.

The name change – which was chosen among 3,000 proposals, with some initial consideration of retaining the "ABC" name – was necessitated due to audience testing sampling regular viewers of the channel and those who watched ABC Family on an infrequent basis, which revealed that although regular viewers understood the network's youth-skewing concept, non-viewers perceived the channel as being more family-oriented. The channel plans to double the amount of original programming on its schedule through 2020; however, despite firmly focusing on its specified target audience, Freeform will also continue to carry much of the existing programming under the ABC Family brand including family-oriented series and feature films, the 25 Days of Christmas and 13 Nights of Halloween blocks, and its weekday airings of The 700 Club.