The head of Great American Media says the company’s two leading platforms have a “mission” to promote faith, family and country and that its upcoming Easter programming is an example of that.
Great American Media is home to Great American Family, a traditional channel that’s available on major providers, and Great American Pure Flix, a streaming service that launched last year following a merger with Pure Flix.
Bill Abbott, CEO of Great American Media, says faith is a critical element to the company’s success.
“We are just relentlessly focused on positivity and uplifting and faith and family and country,” Abbott told Christian Headlines. “If we do 20 Christmas movies, 20 Christmas movies will have one of those elements and be focused on those areas. We will never deviate from that.
“From a reliability point of view, we are just 100 percent focused and relentless about being a reliable destination that families can feel comfortable watching.”
The goal, he said, is to promote content to families that “reinforces their values.”
Abbott helped launch Great American Family in 2021 after serving as the president and CEO of Crown Media Family Networks, the parent company of the Hallmark Channel. Prior to that, he worked at Fox Family Worldwide and the Family Channel.
Too often, he said, mainstream networks belittle faith.
“Faith is so often degraded and portrayed in a negative manner in a variety of ways in the mainstream landscape,” Abbott said. “I say ‘mainstream,’ [but] I think we're more mainstream than the mainstream.”
Mainstream content, he said, is often “anti-America” and supports “reengineering the family.”
Meanwhile, the Great American Media channels will include several Easter-themed programs this year. The History of Easter, presented by the Museum of the Bible, will air on Great American Family March 29 at 5 Eastern. The Passion Play, presented by Shepherd Church, will air that same day at 3:45 Eastern.
That same week, Great American Family will debut Just In Time, a faith-centric film executive produced by Candace Cameron Bure. It stars Laura Osnes and will air March 26 at 8 Eastern.
Great American Media recently announced the launch of a mystery franchise, similar to the mystery series that Bure made popular at Hallmark. Bure will star in the first one, The Ainsley McGregor Mysteries: A Case for the Winemaker. A release date has not been set.
Great American Family and Great American Pure Flix, Abbott said, fill a niche.
“It's very important for there to be entertainment that is family-friendly, that has faith elements … and that you can watch with the kids and feel good about and 24/7 all the time,” he said. “It's really a mission for us.”
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Image credit: Just in Time Movie / Great American Family
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
