Freeform and its Complicated History (Part 1)

Freeform is a Disney-owned television channel for young adults, carrying popular and groundbreaking series like The Bold Type, Cruel Summer, The Fosters, Grown-ish, Pretty Little Liars, Siren, and many more. Before 2016, most of you knew the channel as ABC Family - an era still reflected today in Freeform's carriage of popular films from the 1980s and 1990s, as well as its family-friendly programming blocks (Funday Weekend, 25 Days of Christmas, 31 Nights of Halloween).

An unusual staple of Freeform's lineup is The 700 Club, a Christian program from televangelist Pat Robertson and his Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). While Robertson/CBN's conservative, religious views have no place on a channel known for its socially progressive content, Freeform is contractually bound to air The 700 Club until further notice. The reason why? Well, if it weren't for CBN, Freeform would've never existed.

In 1977, the CBN network launched a smaller, all-religious cable channel called the CBN Satellite Service. As the years went on, its format gradually allowed non-religious programming – mainly family-focused films and movies – to fill up the schedule, culminating in a rebrand as the CBN Family Channel in 1988. This programming expansion (and the resulting increase in cable carriage) came at a cost for CBN, a strictly non-profit organization. Robertson's family formed a spin-off company called International Family Entertainment (IFE), which took over operations for the channel in 1990. Subsequently, it removed the "CBN" part of the channel's name, now known as just "The Family Channel."

The Family Channel chugged along until 1997, when News Corporation – the original owners of Fox – acquired International Family Entertainment and merged it with its Fox Kids division. IFE became Fox Family Worldwide, with The Family Channel being renamed as Fox Family the following year.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2!