Freeform Launches TV Everywhere App
- by Wayne Friedman , January 12, 2016
On the
heels of its new name change, the young-skewing network Freeform -- the former ABC Family -- has started up a new streaming app. The app will be a “TV Everywhere” app -- where users must be pay TV subscribers for the network via traditional linear TV.
But to promote the app’s launch -- as well as to promote the network name change -- following Tuesday’s series premiere of “Shadowhunters” on linear TV, the first and second episodes of the new drama will be available to fans nationwide without signing in.
Tom Ascheim, president of Freeform, stated: “The redesigned app begins a new year for us when digital is of equal importance to what we do in the linear world... Our audience is comprised of mobile natives.”
Network executives have said the new name is to focus on spontaneity and creativity.
The name change for the network, which was announced in October, made the transition on Tuesday.
It is the first time the word “family” won’t appear on the network in 25 years. Freeform is distributed in 94 million homes.
