Joe Ortiz: Last News

Disney Branded Television and National Geographic head of marketing Pam Levine is exiting her role at the company as it restructures to move her responsibilities under Disney Entertainment Television president of marketing Shannon Ryan‘s team. Levine reported directly to Ryan.

There probably has been no other television network that has changed its brand identity more times than Freeform. Starting as CBN Satellite Service 45 years ago, it was subsequently renamed CBN Cable Network, CBN Family Channel, The Family Channel, Fox Family Channel and ABC Family until Disney’s younger-skewing network adopted its current Freeform moniker in 2016.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Freeform is “F”-ing around with its look. Literally. The Disney cabler’s new logo centers on two stylized “F”s (in “free” and “form”) that perpetually wiggle and move around in the network’s IDs. It’s part of a brand refresh instituted by Freeform president Tara Duncan, who took over the network in summer 2020, and her content marketing senior VP, Joe Ortiz, who joined the following spring. “As Tara Duncan came to Freeform, we really wanted to refine who we were and who we were serving, and then ultimately connect the dots visually,” Ortiz says of the new logo and graphics package, which was launched on-air and online the week of Sept. 12 (tied to the premiere of new series “The Come Up”). “What we wanted to do is to create something that was modern and ownable and ultimately emotive, much like our audience. So, it was just a full Freeform evolution.”