ABC Family 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.

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 networks from Fox Family, the Boyz Channel and the Girls Channel, which both contained content focusing on each sex; both networks went off the air a year later due to lack of demand.

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 airs 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 Chavez, as well as other comments, ABC Family moved to distance itself from the program, airing a disclaimer before, during, and after the broadcast: "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 [1].

• 7th Heaven
• America's Funniest Home Videos (Bob Saget version)
• Boy Meets World
• Family Matters
• Everwood (Starts September 2006)
• Full House
• Gilmore Girls
• Grounded for Life
• My Wife and Kids (Starts 2008)
• The Hogan Family (started April 2006, pulled off after a week, should return soon)
• Smallville (currently on hiatus)
• Step by Step
• Whose Line Is It Anyway?

• 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- Coming June 5, 2006 (already airing in Canada on Global)
• Kicked Out - Adult children are kicked out to live on their own by their parents
• Knock First - Trading Spaces for kids
• Switched! - Kids change houses for a few days
• Venus & Serena: For Real - A reality show following the tennis stars around
• Wildfire - An ex-con becomes a jockey
• Back on Campus - starting April 2006--mothers and sons go to college together

In addition to these programs ABC Family also shows original movies.

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