Following the recent merger of Great American Media (GAM) with the Pure Flix platform, media executive Bill Abbott is pledging to remain a leader in high-quality, positive content that’s suitable for family viewing. Abbott, CEO of Great American Media, said the goal is to align “mission-driven people and brands” at the two companies.
As part of the merger, GAM and Pure Flix will share content across their platforms. GAM’s brands include Great American Family, which ended 2022 as the fastest-growing cable network.
Last year, actress and outspoken Christian Candace Cameron Bure ended a decade-long partnership with the Hallmark Channel to join Great American Family. Abbott left Hallmark’s parent company in 2020 over objections to content featuring storylines about gay couples.
Bill Abbott: People of Faith Shouldn’t Be ‘Derided’
Speaking to The Christian Post, Abbott said he plans to keep providing top-notch content that respects “faith, family, and country.” In a culture that’s “very, very dark” and filled with “negativity,” Abbott said, Christians want wholesome movies and TV shows that reflect their values. Yet “the vast majority of content [that’s out there] is salacious and is not appropriate for any member of the family, really.”
Abbott objects to how the entertainment business tends to portray religious beliefs in a negative light. “People of faith [are] more put down and derided than celebrated” on the big and small screen, he said.
Pure Flix, the faith-based streaming service of Sony Pictures Entertainment, streams the hit TV series “The Chosen.” Pure Flix plans start at $7.99 per month.
About the Pure Flix merger with GAM, Sony’s Ravi Ahuja, chairman of global television studios and corporate development, said, “Family-friendly entertainment remains an important segment of the industry, and merging these two entities will create the greatest opportunity to achieve more scale for Pure Flix as it continues to build its subscriber base.”
High Standards Lead to Careful Gatekeeping
GAM’s Abbott touts the reliable quality of his company’s content, saying it all must be 100% family-friendly and appropriate for viewers of all ages. Teams consider every project through that lens to ensure they don’t end up “presenting situations that are uncomfortable for the family,” he said.
“We scrutinize every piece of content,” Abbott told The Christian Post. “We create every word, every sentence, every way in which a person either respects their family and their elders or interacts with them. Those are very important elements for us that are supportive of an overall culture structure and belief system.”
 with the Pure Flix platform, media executive Bill Abbott is pledging to remain a leader in high-quality, positive content that’s suitable for family viewing.){kind=link}