Join or Sign In
Sign in to customize your TV listings
By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.
The name changes comes as the network shifts its audience priorities
Like many other 14-year-olds, ABC Family is changing its name, and it now wants to be called Freeform, the network announced Tuesday.
According to a press release, the reason behind the change is to is to better cater to "Becomers," a new demographic defined as a "life stage" as opposed to a generation. "There are two billion Becomers worldwide," the press release declares.
This new wave of viewers, which spans the ages of 14 to 34, will be the new target demographic for the network, after they realized that Millennials were not impervious to the tick-tocking of time.
"We looked up, and those Millennials got old," network president Tom Ascheim told TVInsider. "The oldest ones are going to be 40. The Millennials were synonymous with youth for so long that we thought it would happen forever. But they had the nerve to age on us."
So in order to stay "on fleek," as Becomers would say, ABC Family is becoming Freeform in January. But don't worry, the network's programming - including Pretty Little Liars andThe Fosters - will remain relatively the same.