ABC Family (formerly known as Fox Family and the Family channel) is an American cable television network currently owned by Disney/ABC.

The network was founded by Pat Robertson in April 1977 as CBN Cable, an arm of his Christian Broadcasting Network. It was the first satellite-launched basic cable network. The CBN Satellite Service grew to 10.9 million homes by May 1981. In September 1981, the format and the name were changed for the first time. CBN Cable Network became an entertainment cable network, providing family programming. Under the new format, the CBN Cable Network grew from 28 million households in May 1985, to 35.8 million in May 1987, and by the early 1990s, 47.6 million households.

In September 1988, the word family was incorporated into the name to better reflect the format, becoming the CBN Family Channel. By 1990, the network had grown too profitable to remain under the CBN banner without endangering CBN's nonprofit status. CBN spun it off to a new company called International Family Entertainment (run by Robertson's son, Tim), and the name was changed to simply The Family Channel. The network gained more visibility when, for several years in the mid-1990s, it was the primary sponsor of Ted Musgrave's #16 Ford in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series.

It was sold to Fox Broadcasting Company and Haim Saban in July 1997, and it changed its name to Fox Family. The change from The Family Channel to Fox Family became official on August 15, 1998. As The Family Channel, it attracted an older audience not sought by advertisers, but only about one-third of homes watching the network included kids. When Fox bought the channel in 1997, programmers sought a new dual audience — kids in daytime, families at night. 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 sex; both networks went off the air a year later due to lack of demand and due to the controversy that developed over the sex-segrated channels [1].

As part of the agreement when International Family Entertainment sold the network to Fox, The 700 Club aired twice every weekday—live at 10 a.m. Eastern, then repeated at 11 p.m. Eastern; they also aired occasional weekend-long CBN telethons as part of the deal. This arrangement frustrated Fox to no end, as it broke up any attempt to build programming continuity. Due to this, the network was sold again to ABC in July 2001 for $3.2 billion. Under Fox's ownership, the Family Channel 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. and Saban. Some observers believe that Fox Family chased away some of the older viewers and never really replaced the core audience. As a result, prime time ratings declined 35% in the past three years.

The sale to ABC included the Fox Kids Network (a joint venture of Fox and Haim Saban) which provided the new ABC Family with hours of children's programming. The few Fox Kids shows ABC Family aired are broadcast under the Jetix action banner, until 2006 when it will be moved to Toon Disney. However, ABC Family must still air The 700 Club every weekday, with subsequent repeats at 11 p.m. (ET).

Following controversial remarks made by 700 Club host Pat Robertson about Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, as well as other comments, ABC Family moved to distance itself from the program, changing the disclaimers before, during, and after the broadcasts from "The following/preceding program is brought to you by CBN" to "The following/preceding CBN telecast does not reflect the views of ABC Family."

The sale to ABC, owned by Disney, was considered one of the largest mistakes or problems occouring during the tenure of Michael Eisner. The failure was primarily due to the aquisition being done by the strategic planning department of Disney, without consulting anyone at ABC. The original plan was to use the channel to essentially show re-runs of ABC programming, but this plan was completely impossible since ABC had no syndication rights to the majority of their own programs. The next major plan was to reposition the channel to market it to young women or to a more hip audience (under the name XYZ, a reference to ABC), however this was impossible since the company has contracts with cable companies which contain an unbreakable stipulation put in by Robertson that the channel contain the word Family in the name forever, no matter who owns the network [2].

• The Family Channel logo from 1988-1998
  The Family Channel logo from 1988-1998
• Fox Family Channel logo from 1998-2000
  Fox Family Channel logo from 1998-2000
• Fox Family logo from 2000-2001
  Fox Family logo from 2000-2001
• ABC Family logo from 2001-2002
  ABC Family logo from 2001-2002
• ABC Family logo from 2002-present
  ABC Family logo from 2002-present

• 7th Heaven
• America's Funniest Home Videos (Bob Saget version) Ended in June of 2006
• Boy Meets World
• Family Matters
• Everwood (Starts September 2006)
• Full House
• Gilmore Girls
• Grounded for Life
• My Wife and Kids (Starts 2008)
• Step by Step
• Whose Line Is It Anyway?
• The Dukes of Hazzard
• Smallville (Returns in January 2007)
• The Hogan Family (Starts September 2006)

They have also aired 3rd Rock from the Sun, Jesse, Two of a Kind, So Little Time, Sweet Valley High, Hang Time, The Wonder Years, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, and Growing Pains in recent years.

• Beautiful People - A family moves to NY to start a new life
• The Brendan Leonard Show - A real show about real friends in Winnetka, Illinois
• Falcon Beach
• Kicked Out - Adult children are kicked out to live on their own by their parents
• Knock First - Trading Spaces for kids
• Kyle XY - A show about a boy with no belly-button and no knowledge of his past.
• State of Grace (2001-2003) - Two very different girls befriend each other in 1965 North Carolina
• Switched! - Kids change houses for a few days
• Three Moons Over Milford - The impact the near end of the world is having on a small town.
• Venus & Serena: For Real - A reality show following the tennis stars around
• Wildfire - An ex-con becomes a jockey
• Back on Campus

• Official Site
• Family Channel takes on Fox look
• Disney buying Fox Family Channel
• Disney refocusing Family channel

• Family Channel Canada