Pretty Little Liars, Baby Daddy, Young & Hungry all have one thing in common, they are all on the same program network. They stayed with ABC Family as it changed its name to Freeform. After 30 years, ABC Family is stepping away from family and broadening their name for the younger and growing ages.
But it doesn’t seem like many people agree with the new change.
The Freeform network is working towards capturing the interest of “Becomers.” Those who have been exposed to watching family programming that takes on real-life issues. Their story lines target the 14 to 34 age demographic.
But, maybe they should go back to ABC Family.
“The word ‘Family’ sounds overly loud to their ears and that makes it a barrier to them coming into our ecosystem,” said ABC Family president, Tom Ascheim. “For the last 10-to-12 years, we’ve been targeting young people, Millennials, 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?”
Freeform wants to change its programming to grow with and appeal to their target audience. Their mission is to win back those audience members that drifted away from ABC Family. In order to achieve this goal, Freeform is committed to providing television audiences with suspenseful, informative story lines that are ripped right out of the headlines.
What do you think about the change of their name? Will it make a difference? What do you hope to see from Freeform that ABC Family didn’t provide?
Look forward to what you have to say.
Enhancing Your Globe 