Great American Family’s Bill Abbott Focused on Faith and Family
By Movieguide® Staff
Since leaving Hallmark and creating Great American Media, Bill Abbott’s faith-focused Great American Family has become the fastest growing network in the industry.
In June 2021, Abbott launched Great American Family to reach one of the largest markets in America; families.
For audiences who want to see their values of faith and family on screen—and who have grown accustomed to being ostracized in mainstream media—Great American Family is quickly becoming the paramount platform.
“We started [GAF] with a belief that the majority of people are tired of what they see on TV, and that there isn’t a place that allows viewers to come to and be inspired and uplifted and have faith and family at the forefront of what they view,” Abbott told Movieguide® in a recent interview. “They can’t watch with their families. We want to be that outlet.”
“The vast majority, if not all, of the entertainment outlets in the business are edgy and salacious, they are the bottom of the barrel in terms of the content that they produce,” he continued. “We wanted to be the quality creator of everything that is faith and family for viewers.”
Over the course of two years, ‘Christmas in July’ has become a fan favorite, Abbott said. GAF holds the Christmas season in high regard, and hopes that ‘Christmas in July’ acts as a moment of anticipation and respite before the holiday season.
“I have always bumped up a little bit against the Christmas in July thinking because to me Christmas is that season of cold weather and the meaning of the season and all the different pieces that go toward ultimately Christmas day,” Abbott said. “But our viewers just love that mid-year respite, where they can anticipate the season.”
“Christmas is also a season of anticipation and July gives you that little bit of a feeling and sense that the season is coming,” he added. “It’ll be here before we know it and so certainly, in response to the viewer reaction of what they want to see, ‘Christmas in July’ has taken center stage…”
This year, ‘Christmas in July’ will also be available on Pure Flix as a result of a recent merger between GAF and the popular Sony Pictures Television streaming platform.
“It’s a merger of like minded missions,” Abbott said of the merge, which took place on May 11, 2023. “The reality of both services is that they’ll be impacted by each other. I think the Great American family will benefit from the strong faith components that Pure Flix has done so well over the years, and Great American Pure Flix, we could call it, will be the beneficiary of the lighter fare that has done so well on Great American family.”
“The vision of being the ultimate destination for viewers in the faith and family space is our objective and we believe will happen in the next three, five years,” he added.
Along with adding their content to a vast catalog of Pure Flix streaming, Abbott hopes that the merge will also open unique doors for their other family-friendly services like Great American Community.
“Great American Community, within the world that’s Pure Flix, is going to be a very different proposition,” he said. “I think it is going to be enormously successful, giving viewers and subscribers the opportunity to interact with talent, to get to know talent, to get to see them a few times a week, [and see] what they do with their daily lives, whether it’s a scripture, Bible study, or it’s cooking a meal for [their] family.”
“That type of content, consumed on a service that is streaming, will be very different and much more vibrant than we would have had the ability to create with just a digital presence,” he added. “So it’ll be an add-on to Pure Flix and something that really distinguishes Great American Pure Flix from any other streaming service out there. It’s the relationships with the talent and the talents’ like minded philosophy around life that makes it so achievable.”
Abbott credits the speed of Great American Family’s growth to the talent who share the belief that there is an audience who wants to see uplifting faith and family content.
No one’s doing it the way we are, with a focus and awareness of quality and faith and family being at the center focal point,” he said. “Secondly, the talent that we’ve been able to have join us here—from Candace, to Jen Lilley, to Danica McKellar—people who not only represent tremendous popularity on screen, but live their lives a certain way and are very well known to the audience.”
“That presentation of faith and family is something our viewers have really grabbed hold of,” Abbott said. “And it made us eight straight months, the leader in growth and the entire industry.”
Movieguide® previously reported:
Great American Family has reached a new ratings milestone — it’s now the fastest-growing network among viewers, and continues to hold its spot as the fastest-growing network on TV.
Nielsen Media Research reported that Great American Family finished the second quarter of 2023 as the “Fastest-growing network on TV in Total Day Women 25-54 (+83%), Households (+214%) and Total Viewers (+216%); and Primetime Households (+178%) and Total Viewers (+167%).”
The network also continues to be the fastest-growing network on TV in Total Day Households (+161%) and Total Viewers (+158%), as well as Primetime Households (+149%) and Total Viewers (+145%).
This is Great American Family’s eighth-cconsecutive month as the fastest-growing network “year-over-year in Total Day Household ratings.”
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