Great American Family Inks Multi-Year Deal to Become Cable Home of Tournament of Roses Parade Beginning in 2024

Is there ever a more joyful and picture-perfect event every year than the Tournament of Roses Parade? Every Jan. 1 floats decorated in the most glorious floral arrangements make their way down the streets of sunny Pasadena, Cali. The parade broadcast has become an annual tradition for many families, and starting this coming New Year’s Day, it will have a new cable home.

According to an exclusive report from Deadline, the rapidly growing family-focused cable channel Great American Family has inked a multi-year deal with the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association to pick up the broadcasting rights from rival channel the Hallmark Channel. GAF will begin broadcasting the annual event in 2024 beginning at 11 a.m. ET.

“It’s an honor to be back working alongside the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association to televise this classic event,” Great American Media CEO Bill Abbott told Deadline. “The Rose Parade perfectly embodies the mission of Great American Family by bringing joy and celebration to participants and spectators alike, and I have had the pleasure of seeing first-hand the positive impact on communities made possible by the Tournament of Roses Foundation’s meaningful outreach efforts. We look forward to our continued partnership in the years to come.”

In addition to being able to find the parade on GAF, ABC, the Cowboy Channel, NBC and Peacock, Univision, and local Southern California channel KTLA 5 all have broadcast partnerships with the Tournament of Roses.

Great American Family’s general focus is on comfortable, lean-back programming, highlighted by their slate of holiday rom-coms known as “Great American Christmas.” Abbott, who previously served as the CEO of the Hallmark Channel’s parent company Crown Media Family Networks, is fashioning the channel in many of the same ways that he shepherded Hallmark, except GAF actively avoids anything that it considers to be controversial or offensive, including same-sex characters.

By securing the rights to the always popular Tournament of Roses Parade, Great American Media is continuing to eat into the market that Hallmark has otherwise dominated for years.

“The Tournament of Roses has partnered with Great American Family as our new broadcast partner for the Rose Parade,” 2024 Pasadena Tournament of Roses president Alex Aghajanian said, “and we couldn’t be more excited to bring this iconic tradition to households nationwide, delivering an unparalleled viewing experience for families across the country and around the world.”