​Artists reinvent themselves all the time, singers change their styles with the seasons and actors change characters at the drop of a hat. Why can’t cable networks do the same?

ABC Family announced this week that starting in January, it will go by the name Freeform, to better reflects its programming (Pretty Little Liars, The Fosters, the upcoming Shadowhunters) and its changing viewership. The network has deemed this audience Becomers, or people going from “first kiss to first kid,” as one network executive put it. They tend to be ages 14-34 and in high school, college and beyond. Overall, they’re a highly engaged group of young millennials.

ABC Family’s announcement of the upcoming name change is below:

The move comes not only months after it updated its on-air branding to reflect this audience, but also during a year of many other network changes.

This January, TV Guide Network became Pop. NBCU shuttered Style to bring Esquire Network to air, and Fox Soccer became FX’s comedy sister network, FXX.

Two years ago, Speed became Fox Sports 1. NBC changed Versus into NBC Sports while Disney replaced SOAPnet with Disney Jr. In 2011, Oprah Winfrey’s OWN took over the slot previously occupied by Discovery Health. And more than five years ago, Discovery Times became Investigation Discovery, a highly successful switch, while CourtTV reinvented itself as truTV. A+E Networks has been rumored to be making plans to change its H2 channel into an on-air home for VICE next year.

ABC Family itself has also gone through many iterations, starting decades ago as the Christian Broadcasting Network before turning into the Family Channel and then the Fox Family Channel in the ‘90s, becoming ABC Family roughly 15 years ago.

These name changes don’t even take into account the amount of cable network rebrands, refreshes and redesigns also taking place this year. The 2015 upfronts was filled with announcements of upcoming rebrands, from TBS, TV Land and TCM to Spike and Fuse.

So many name changes and rebrands on the horizon signal a shift in viewership and programming focuses for these channels, but also show the importance of network branding in an age of delayed viewing, binge-watching and cord-nevers threatening cable networks’ futures.

Read more at Adweek.

Brief Take: The amount of rebrands and refreshes this year alone are still growing, with a few months left still to see if some of the rumored network changes will take place. There must be a few cable networks out there who have yet to rethink their looks this year.

Image courtesy of ABC Family

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