ABC Family is changing its name to Freeform. “This is an evolution for our company that has been going on for a long time,” said ABC Family President Tom Ascheim. Some would argue the name change is overdue.

Originally created as an adjunct to Pat Robinson’s Christian Broadcasting Network, ABC family was known as The Family Channel in 1990 before it was sold to Fox and later Disney (which owns ABC). In recent years, the channel’s leaders have abandoned traditional family programming in favor of shows targeted toward more toward 14- to 34-year-olds.

“We wanted to create some harmony between our target audience, content and our brand; and thus far, it has felt as if we only had two out of the three,” says Ascheim. “We had the audience and content linked, but the name was lagging a bit. This allowed us to create a holy trinity between the three, and ‘Family’ didn’t seem to be the easiest way to get that across.” (The Hollywood Reporter)