Freeform (TV channel)
Freeform is an American basic cable channel owned and operated by ABC Family Worldwide, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment business segment and division of The Walt Disney Company. Freeform primarily broadcasts programming geared towards young adults—with some skewing toward young women—in the 18–34 age range, a target demographic designated by the channel as "becomers". Its programming includes contemporary off-network syndicated reruns and original series, feature films, and made-for-TV original movies. Movies are also shown during seasonal programming blocks, like 31 Nights of Halloween, 30 Days of Disney, and 25 Days of Christmas.
Since the network was launched on April 29, 1977, it has undergone various changes to its programming format and naming under 4 different owners. The network was originally founded as a religious channel, the CBN Satellite Service—an extension of televangelist Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. It evolved into a family-focused entertainment network in 1981. It was spun off into a for-profit company known as International Family Entertainment in 1990, eventually becoming known as The Family Channel. As a condition of the spin-off, the channel was contractually required to maintain airings of The 700 Club and an annual telethon the last Sunday in January; these conditions have applied to all future owners of the channel.
In 1997, IFE and the Family Channel were acquired by a joint venture between News Corporation and Haim Saban. This resulted in its rebranding as the Fox Family Channel a year later. The new owners wanted to reposition the network toward younger viewers as a companion for the unpopular Fox Kids Network. The venture was sold to Disney in October 2001 after the network began to struggle as a result of their changes. The channel altered its name to ABC Family one month later on November 10. The network was later rebranded as Freeform on January 12, 2016.
The network's president reports to the chairman of Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment.
History
The channel traces its origins to the launch of the CBN Satellite Service, an arm of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, on April 29, 1977. Focusing mainly on religious programming, the channel was notable for being one of the first cable channels to distribute its signal nationally through satellite transmission as well as the first national basic cable-originated network. The channel changed its name to the CBN Cable Network on September 1, 1981, and adopted a more secular programming format featuring a mix of family-oriented series and films while retaining some religious programs from various televangelists. Around this time, the channel began airing a late night block of classic family oriented shows like You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx, I Married Joan, and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. This block of programming is said by some to have inspired the 1985 debut of the Nick at Nite classic television block on Nickelodeon. By this point, its carriage grew to 10.9 million homes with a cable television subscription.On January 1, 1988, the word "Family" was incorporated into the channel's name to better reflect its programming format, rebranding as The CBN Family Channel. By 1990, the network had grown too profitable to remain under the Christian Broadcasting Network umbrella without endangering the ministry's non-profit status. On January 8 of that year, CBN spun out the network into a new, for-profit corporation known as International Family Entertainment. Managed by Pat Robertson's eldest son Timothy, IFE was co-owned by the Robertsons, with a minority interest held by Liberty Media and Tele-Communications Inc. owner John C. Malone. Following the spin-off, the channel's name was officially shortened to The Family Channel on September 15, 1990.
As a stipulation included as part of the spin-out from CBN to International Family Entertainment, The Family Channel was required to continue its daily airings of CBN's flagship program, The 700 Club. This carried on to ABC Family and eventually Freeform, with Freeform gaining attention for snarky disclaimers before airings, which have since been toned down.
As of September 2023, Freeform was available to more than 55 million households in the United States, according to Nielsen estimates. The channel was among several dropped by Charter Spectrum in September 2023 following a carriage dispute with Disney and then restored in September 2025 following a new agreement to offer Hulu.
Programming
Outside of prime time and programming that's part of their contractual obligations with CBN, Freeform mostly airs reruns of contemporary comedy series such as According to Jim and Boy Meets World.The channel also produces some original programming, which as of August 2025 includes shows such as How I Escaped My Cult, Scam Goddess, The Stolen Girl, Born to Be Viral: The Real Lives of Kidfluencers, Not Her First Rodeo, Project Runway, and Love Thy Nader. Until the debuts of Melissa & Joey, Baby Daddy, Young and Hungry and Grown-ish, Freeform had long faced minimal success with its original sitcoms, with its drama series often outlasting its comedies.
Freeform airs its original drama series on Monday and/or Tuesday nights, and since 2011, has aired its comedy series on Wednesdays. The channel airs first-run episodes of its original series mainly between January and August, with films generally airing in their place during prime time on the aforementioned nights from September to December, the first ten episodes of each season of its original programs air consecutively, the season's remaining episodes are broadcast following a hiatus of four to six months. Dating back to its existence as ABC Family, Freeform typically only reruns episodes of its original series in a marathon that airs prior to a season premiere, mid-season or season finale, or other special occasion, though the channel does air encore presentations of its shows that typically preempt programs that normally air at 7:00 and 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time during the rest of the week on these nights.
Films
Freeform airs movies in prime time on Thursday and Friday nights, along with a day-long schedule of films on weekends from as early as 7:00 a.m. to as late as 2:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Saturdays and Sundays.As of 2019, Freeform features a mix of animated and live action films from film divisions Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, and Blue Sky Studios.
Freeform also shows sub-runs of theatrical films from other studios such as Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, HiT Entertainment, Lionsgate, and DreamWorks Pictures.
Freeform has purchased the cable television rights to many film series, such as the Harry Potter series, 2004's A Cinderella Story and most recently the Legally Blonde film series.
The channel also produces its own original made-for-TV movies ; some of Freeform's most popular original movies include Night of the Twisters, Holiday in Handcuffs, the Au Pair trilogy, Ice Angel, and Cyberbully. As Freeform, the channel has had original movies such as Angry Angel, The Truth About Christmas, Life-Size 2, No Sleep 'Til Christmas, Turkey Drop, and Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas. ABC Family, the channel has also recently been generating high levels of viewers with its weekend movie events; the "Harry Potter Weekend" block in July 2009 generated some of the highest levels of viewers for its weekend events for the year to date. ABC Family's airing of The Hunger Games on October 10, 2014, was one of the channel's most watched telecasts for a single film, being seen by nearly 1.9 million viewers.
Freeform is becoming known for airing previews of upcoming movies, as it has done for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Hairspray, and Stardust.
The channel has also aired select Disney Channel Original Movies in recent years, including the 2008 movie Camp Rock the 2011 films Lemonade Mouth and Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension, and the 2017 movie Descendants 2, which are also four of only five Disney Channel movies to air domestically on a non-Disney Channel branded network. This has become somewhat more prevalent since the channel's January 2016 rebranding to Freeform, which has also seen the channel air such popular Disney Channel films as High School Musical.
Freeform aired the Olivia Rodrigo film Driving Home 2 U on May 14, 2022. It was the first time that a Disney+ original movie ever aired on Freeform.
Sports
From 2000 to 2001, Fox Family aired a weekly Major League Baseball game on Thursday nights during the league's regular season, as well as select Division Series games. As part of its purchase of Fox Family, in addition to that game, Disney acquired the MLB cable television rights that were also held by Fox Family's then-sister channel FX. ESPN assumed the production responsibilities for the two game packages beginning with the 2002 MLB season, although the game telecasts remained on ABC Family for one additional year, before ESPN struck a deal to move those playoff games to its flagship network starting the following year. The Division Series games broadcast on the network were simulcast on local broadcast television stations in the home markets of the participating teams.For the 2020 NFL season, ESPN aired an alternate broadcast of its National Football League wild card game on Freeform, alongside simulcasts on ABC, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes; this marked the first live sports telecast of any kind on the channel since 2002.