In 1997, IFE and the Family Channel were acquired by a joint venture between News Corporation and Haim Saban.

The channel changed its name to the CBN Cable Network on September 1, 1981, and adopted a more secular programming format featuring a mix of family-oriented series and films while retaining some religious programs from various televangelists (mirroring the format used by CBN's independent television stations of that time).

Around this time, the channel began airing a late night block of classic family oriented shows like You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx, I Married Joan, and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

On January 8 of that year, CBN spun out the network into a new, for-profit corporation known as International Family Entertainment (IFE).

[10] Outside of prime time, Freeform as of January 2025 offers a slate of mostly reruns of contemporary comedy series, such as black-ish and Boy Meets World.

The channel also produces some original programming, which as of January 2025 includes shows such as Chrissy & Dave Dine Out, Grand Cayman Secrets in Paradise, Royal Rules of Ohio, Sasha Reid and the Midnight Order, Scam Goddess and Wayne Brady The Family Remix.

Freeform airs movies in prime time on Thursday and Friday nights (and if no original series are scheduled, Mondays, Tuesdays and/or Wednesdays as well), along with a day-long schedule of films on weekends from as early as 7:00 a.m. (sometimes later, such as around 7:30 a.m. or 8:00 a.m.) to as late as 2:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Saturdays and Sundays.

ABC Family's airing of The Hunger Games on October 10, 2014, was one of the channel's most watched telecasts for a single film, being seen by nearly 1.9 million viewers.

Freeform is becoming known for airing previews of upcoming movies, as it has done for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Hairspray, and Stardust.

[12] For the 2020 NFL season, ESPN aired an alternate broadcast of its National Football League (NFL) wild card game on Freeform, alongside simulcasts on ABC, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes;[13] this marked the first live sports telecast of any kind on the channel since 2002 (when the channel was known as ABC Family).

They moved away from the planned romantic comedies to green light two telefilms, Crimes of Fashion and Head Rush.

As of June 2015, Bieber is Vice President, Production Management and Operations, ABC Family over seeing ProdCo.

[32] The ABC Spark name was purposefully chosen to avoid conflicts with premium service Family Channel.

[33][34][35][36] While ABC Spark did not follow the lead of its U.S. counterpart and change its name to Freeform, it did adopt similar branding elements.