Bye-Bye ABC Family, Hello Freefrom

[ynkeesfn82]

ABC Family is changing their name to Freeform in January 2016.

http://www.thewrap.com/abc-family-name-change-freeform/

The 700 Club will continue to air as there was a clause in the contract when  The 700 Club sold The Family Channel to FOX in the late 1990s. And then FOX sold it to ABC in 2001.

[Hudsons81]

Wasn't there another clause in which CBN wanted the channel to permanently contain the word "Family" in it's name, no matter who owns it?

[jason83080]

That's what we all thought. However, the new network president said that no such clause exists.

My take on this? Disney's changing the name, and Pat Robertson can't do a thing about it.

[TheFugitive]

Just as well, as frankly a lot of their programming is not very "family friendly".
As a parent you'd rather have truth in advertising.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

CBN was re-launched on broadcast TV, making the clause pointless these days.

[TheFugitive]

CBN was on broadcast TV before it was on cable.

It ran syndicated on independent stations in many markets (including
WPGH-TV here) starting in the late 60's..   I remember them running
The 700 Club as well as a version of the Bozo show (which was quite strange
when a man in full Bozo costume and makeup would come out and read Bible verses)

Around 1980 Pat Robertson got the bright idea to use the satellite time he was buying
to provide his shows to affiliate stations to feed them direct to cable as well.  So when
his bird was not feeding The 700 Club or some other CBN religious program it was running
old westerns, classic series from the 1950's, etc.  which were seen on cable systems that ran
the raw feed.

I think initially when CBN sold the network they were still using it to feed daily episodes of
The 700 Club to local stations.  Hence the clause in their sale agreement.

Though today many local TV stations download programs online, just as you do when
you go to Netflix.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

I remember ABC wanting to change the change the channel's name to "XYZ" (the opposite of "ABC") back in the mid 2000s, but Pat Robertson wanted to keep the word "family" in the name. I guess the use of "family" in the new ABC-owned cable network name is nothing Pat has control of these days, since he shifted focus to the CBN broadcast and satellite networks.

[Hudsons81]

I remember ABC wanting to change the change the channel's name to "XYZ" (the opposite of "ABC") back in the mid 2000s, but Pat Robertson wanted to keep the word "family" in the name. I guess the use of "family" in the new ABC-owned cable network name is nothing Pat has control of these days, since he shifted focus to the CBN broadcast and satellite networks.

What is coincidental (though mainly unrelated) is the fact that the new channel would by thought be some to have taken it's name from the callsign of WXYZ-TV in Detroit, one of ABC's original five O&Os and today an affiliate owned by the EW Scripps Company.