Under Fox's ownership, Fox Family saw its ranking slide from 10th to 17th place as a result of an increasingly competitive race for younger viewers and the bickering over ownership between News Corp. To a point, Disney is attempting to relaunch the concept somewhat in February 2009 with the conversion of Toon Disney into the tween boy-targeting Disney XD, while Disney Channel has shifted towards featuring programming appealing to girls (though not necessarily in the same gender-exclusionary manner as the Boyz/Girlz Channel concept). In 1999, Fox tried to spin off two digital cable networks from Fox Family, the Boyz Channel and the Girlz Channel, which both contained content focusing on each gender both networks went off the air a year later due to lack of demand and the controversy that developed over the gender-segregated channels. When Fox bought the channel in 1997, programmers sought a new dual audience – kids in daytime, families at night.
Abc family secret life of series#
The new schedule also included reruns of the CBS Saturday morning series Pee-wee's Playhouse, which had not been seen on television since 1991. The channel aired reruns of some Fox Kids series such as Bobby's World, Eek! The Cat, and Life with Louie, and added some recent family sitcoms as well.
The channel also syndicated many Canadian series, both animated and live action, including Angela Anaconda, Big Wolf on Campus, I Was a 6th Grade Alien, and briefly The Zack Files along with running cartoons and anime based on video games, such as Donkey Kong Country, Megaman, and Monster Rancher, mostly a part of the channel's morning lineup.
Abc family secret life of tv#
However, Fox Family also became a cornerstone for syndicating foreign television series, such as the popular British S Club 7 TV series, which became the flagship series for the channel until the early 2000s. More cartoons were added to the lineup, many of which were from the Fox Kids library, with about eight hours of cartoons airing each day. ET from 10 p.m., while Columbo was moved from 9 p.m. The Family Channel was officially renamed Fox Family Channel on August 15, 1998.įollowing the sale to News Corporation, The 700 Club was scaled back to two airings a day (though the sale agreement required the channel to air it three times daily, once each in the morning, late evening and overnight hours), with the evening broadcast being moved out of prime time and pushed an hour later to 11 p.m. subsidiary of News Corporation in July 1997, and Fox Kids Worldwide Inc. The Family Channel started airing television shows for preschool children, preteens, and teenagers to target all members of the family. (run by Robertson's son, Tim Robertson), and the name was changed to simply The Family Channel on September 15, 1990.Īs The Family Channel, it attracted a slightly older (and religious) audience that is not sought by advertisers only about one-third of homes watching the network included children or youths. CBN spun it off to a new company called International Family Entertainment Inc. By 1990, the network had grown too profitable to remain under the CBN banner without endangering CBN's non-profit status. On August 1, 1988, the word "Family" was incorporated into the channel's name to better reflect the format, becoming The CBN Family Channel. The name later changed to the CBN Cable Network in 1984 and its carriage grew to a million homes by that year. Main article: Television networks preceding ABC FamilyĪBC Family launched on April 29, 1977, as the CBN Satellite Service, an arm of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). On October 24, 2001, Fox Family Channel and Fox Family Worldwide were sold to The Walt Disney Company, in a sale that also included Saban Entertainment. In 1998, it was sold to Fox Kids Worldwide Inc.
The network was founded in 1977 as an extension of televangelist Pat Robertson's Christian television ministry, and eventually evolved into The Family Channel by 1990. The channel generally offers contemporary and family programming aimed at a wide audience, but primarily features series and movies aimed at teenage girls and young women (age 15-30) its programming includes off-network syndicated reruns and original series, feature films and made-for-TV original movies, and some religious programming. Remember to check what links here and the the page history before deleting.ĪBC Family is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. If you disagree with its deletion, please explain why at Category talk:Candidates for deletion or improve the page and remove the tag.