ABC Family To Be Renamed Free Form From January 12th

Disney have announced that ABC Family will be renamed Freeform On January 12 And Will Celebrate With A Daylong Multiplatform Social Event Culminating With The On-Air Debut Of Its New Network Brand Spot, Winter Premiere Of “Pretty Little Liars” And Series Premiere Of “Shadowhunters”

https://youtu.be/-f5aP4h3zrk

Here are all the official details:
 
Freeform Will Put Fans First with Virtual Launch Celebration

Pasadena, CA (January 9, 2016) – The most social television network will celebrate its transition from ABC Family to Freeform in a new and immersive way with a daylong virtual event and exciting partnerships across the breadth of the social space. Key launch partnerships will include a Social DNA Project with Twitter; a live stream of events via Periscope; a Vine booth; a BuzzFeed Facebook Live chat and a custom “Pretty Little Liars” Facebook icon; Instagram content and talent takeovers; and a “Pretty Little Liars” Snapchat filter.

The Freeform Social DNA Project with Twitter will take place on January 12 starting at 11:00 a.m. EST. Throughout the day, fans who tweet @FreeformTV using the hashtag #FreeformLaunch will receive a reply tweet that includes a unique piece of 3D digital art based on a sentiment analysis of their Twitter feed. Each piece of art is as similar and unique as a fingerprint or snowflake. Fans will then have the opportunity to enter an instant win sweepstakes* to receive one of 5000 prizes – a one-of-a-kind piece of 3D printed wearable art representing their Twitter personality, as shown below.

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Fans will be able to participate in the virtual celebration by going to FreeformLaunch.com, or any of the social outlets listed above. On those platforms they will be able to interact with musical artists including deejays Lela B, Bianca Oblivion and Dan Wilcox; drummers P.O.P. Unplugged; visual artists Dancakes (Dan Drake) the pancake artist; muralist Carlos Vera; and talent including Troian Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Lucy Hale, Ian Harding, Shay Mitchell, Janel Parrish, Sasha Pieterse and Keegan Allen from “Pretty Little Liars; and Katherine McNamara, Dominic Sherwood, Harry Shum Jr., Isaiah Mustafa, Matthew Daddario, Emeraude Toubia, Alberto Rosende, and Maxim Roy from “Shadowhunters” who will be creating moments, art and activities of what it means to be Freeform.

For the new Freeform branding spot, a diverse mix of designers, animators and illustrators participated in a unique collaboration to create the ultimate artistic expression of Freeform programming. A network sizzle, created internally and provided to each artist (Ruffmercy; Gustavo Torres; Saiman Chow, Dusty Studio and Audrey Aquino) devoid of graphics and with very few creative parameters. The artists were invited to bring their own unique style to the project, to express how the content made them think and feel, and to be inspired by the passionate fandom around Freeform shows through typography, illustration, and animation. The sizzles were then collected and edited into one “mashup” highlighting the best of each artist’s work – set to the music of rising star Alessia Cara’s upcoming single “Wild Things” from her Def Jam debut album Know-It-All.

The casts of “Pretty Little Liars” and the much anticipated “Shadowhunters” will live Tweet during their premieres. Twitter will give the casts special tools including the Twitter Mirror, Twitter Challenger and Video Q&A to enhance the experience. The sixth season premiere of “Pretty Little Liars” will air at 8:00 p.m. EST followed by the series premiere of “Shadowhunters” at 9:00 p.m. EST.

A Day-In-The-Life of Freeform Launch Day January 12

  • 7:00 a.m. PST        Emeraude Toubia takes over @ShadowhuntersTV on Instagram.
  • 7:30 a.m. PST        Katherine McNamara takes over @ShadowhuntersTV on Instagram.
  • 8:00 a.m. PST        Freeform Social DNA Project with Twitter begins.
    Pancake artist Dancakes and muralist Carlos begin soliciting ideas for pancakes and art throughout the day.
  • 10:00 a.m. PST    “Shadowhunters” stars Harry Shum Jr. and Matthew Daddario use Twitter Challenger and Vine booth.
  • 10:30 a.m. PST    “Pretty Little Liars” Keegan Allen Twiiter Video Q&A and Vine Booth.
  • 11:00 a.m. PST    “Shadowhunters” stars Isaiah Mustafa and Maxim Roy answer questions on Instagram and Facebook.
  • 12:00 p.m. PST    Performance by POP Unplugged.
    Buzzfeed Facebook Live chat with “Pretty Little Liars”.
  • 1:00 p.m. PST        Performance by POP Unplugged.
  • 1:30 p.m. PST    “Shadowhunters” stars Dominic Sherwood and Alberto Rosende take over @ShadowhuntersTV on Snapchat and use the Twitter Vine booth.
  • 2:30 p.m. PST    “Shadowhunters” stars Katherine McNamara and Emeraude Toubia host a Twitter Q&A and Vine booth.
  • 3:30 p.m. PST    Janel Parrish takes over @PLLTVseries on Twitter.
  • 4:00 p.m. PST    Troian Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Lucy Hale, Ian Hardin, Shay Mitchell and Sasha Pieterse take over @PLLTVSeries for a Twitter video Q&A from Twitter HQ in New York City.
  • 5:00 p.m. PST        “Pretty Little Liars” cast live Tweets the premiere.
  • 6:00 p.m. PST        “Shadowhunters” cast live Tweets the premiere.
    The day also includes a “Pretty Little Liars” marathon.
    The name Freeform speaks to the network’s ongoing priority to super-serve Becomers, fans on that epic adventure of becoming an adult, a life stage that spans people who are ages 14-34. Traditionally, Becomers are in high school, college and the decade that follows and are navigating the wonderful, fun, exciting and scary time when you experience many of life’s firsts – from first kiss to first kid.

The audience’s identity and experience are fluid as they explore endless possibilities and their passions take shape. Freeform is inspired by the interconnection between content and audience; media and technology; interactive and linear; life stage and life style, and the way Becomers interact with them all.

What do you think of ABC Family becoming Free Form?  Comment Below:

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One comment

  • Brad B

    To bad Disney couldn’t keep the name Disney Family and play family oriented fare instead of renaming it. Disney’s agenda of pushing today’s idea of of dysfunctional family unit as normal certainly fits Freeform in name and content. Seems both channels could coexist. I am definitely not a fan of the renamed channel nor will my family.