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‘Great Stories That Inspire’: GAF’s Bill Abbott Talks Network Success

‘Great Stories That Inspire’: GAF’s Bill Abbott Talks Network Success

By Movieguide® Contributor

Great American Family CEO Bill Abbott is reflecting on the network’s success — and why most audiences are looking for something “quite different” than what Hollywood is giving them. 

“It’s been a great journey,” Abbott told CBN. “And we’ve had a lot of success so far.”

GAF has been named one of the fastest-growing cable channels and recently merged with the streaming platform Pure Flix, now called Great American Pure Flix. 

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-consecutive month as the fastest-growing network “year-over-year in Total Day Household ratings.”

The content offered by Great American Media is family-friendly and moral, something many have noticed is missing from standard Hollywood fare. 

When asked why larger networks have overlooked this audience for so long, Abbott answered, “Because, quite frankly, the coastal elites have a different sensibility. What is rewarded in Hollywood is being shocking and…pushing the envelope as far as possible.”

“I think the majority of the country is looking for something quite different,” he continued. “And you look at the awards show ratings, for example, and how far down they have been over the years, and it’s because they’ve totally gone off the rails in terms of what the offering is, and it’s out of touch with the sensibility of the majority of the country.”

Abbott discussed the audience Great American Media serves in a previous interview with Variety.

“We want to attract as many people who are underserved, and feel like faith and family is important to them,” he explained. “It’s about telling great stories that inspire, and that people can watch together with their families and will watch together as part of their faith communities or join a book club or do anything that really is considered to be in that faith-and-family genre.”

One of the biggest components of GAF’s content calendar is its Christmas programming. 

“It’s comfort food,” Abbott told Fox News. “It’s the type of content that stands the test of time because you may know what’s going to happen, but it’s how you get there. It’s the journey that makes it interesting and makes it fun.”


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