Discovery’s Struggles with Children’s Programming (Part 2)
In the spring of 2009, toy and media company Hasbro bought 50% of Discovery Kids for $300 million, concurrently announcing that they - along with Discovery Communications - would relaunch the channel with new programming meant to compete with Nickelodeon and Disney Channel.
Though a number of Discovery Kids programs were set to appear on the new channel, also announced were new original series based on Hasbro’s toy brands and board games, including Transformers, My Little Pony, G.I. Joe, and more.
Margaret Loesch, a veteran of the TV industry who’s worked at Hanna-Barbera, Marvel Productions (which produced many Hasbro-inspired cartoons), and Fox Kids, was appointed as the new network’s CEO in July. Loesch also owned a production company known as The Hatchery LLC.
Finally, at the start of 2010, Discovery and Hasbro unveiled the official name for their jointly-run network: The Hub. With a set launch date of October 10 (advertised as 10/10/10), The Hub’s primary audience would be kids 2-12 in the daytime, before transitioning to families at night.
Launch programs included cartoons that were either acquired from around the world (Cosmic Quantum Ray, Dennis and Gnasher, and Deltora Quest) to those formerly seen on Discovery Kids and other networks (Atomic Betty, Grossology, Kenny the Shark, and Tutenstein).
Retro programming made prior to the 1990s was also featured, both in animated (Batman Beyond, G.I. Joe, Men in Black: The Series, and Transformers) and live-action form (‘60s Batman, Family Ties, Fraggle Rock, Happy Days, and The Wonder Years).
Finally, being a channel co-owned by a toy company, The Hub had its fair share of programs inspired by properties from Hasbro, as well as other companies like American Greetings and Loesch's The Hatchery. These programs included The Twisted Whiskers Show, Family Game Night, Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures, Pictureka!, The Haunting Hour, Pound Puppies, and of course, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
Upon launch, The Hub’s ratings were a significant increase from those recorded from Discovery Kids. However, the network’s original programming took a while to kick into full gear, be it a lack of produced episodes or sneak previews that came months ahead of an official premiere.
Fortunately, 2011 brought in several new series, including Clue, Dan Vs., The Game of Life, Majors and Minors, Scrabble Showdown, and the Secret Millionaires Club. Reruns of Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, Batman: The Animated Series, Conan the Adventurer, Goosebumps, and Jem and the Holograms were also added.
And then came 2012, which I believe to be The Hub’s best year. There were several new series (The Aquabats! Super Show!, Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot, Kaijudo, and Littlest Pet Shop), a My Little Pony wedding special which brought in the channel’s highest ratings ever, and the addition of well-known classics (ALF, Animaniacs, Lois & Clark, Mork & Mindy, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, and Superman: The Animated Series).
In 2013, the channel changed its name from The Hub to the Hub Network. More series, including Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch, SheZow, Spooksville, Step by Step, and Tiny Toon Adventures, joined the schedule. October saw the premiere of a two-hour live event dubbed the 1st Annual Halloween Bash.
At the start of 2014, the Hub Network rebranded entirely, introducing a new logo and tagline: “Making Family Fun”. The changes were made to put a greater focus on the channel’s family-friendly audience, which also saw the addition of nightly movies and series such as Blossom and Sister, Sister.
The Kid President-hosted Declaration of Awesome, reality series Parents Just Don’t Understand, and Teenage Fairytale Dropouts were added to the lineup during this period. But despite these efforts, things were starting to shift over at Discovery and Hasbro.
You see, around the time of The Hub's launch, Discovery was also in the process of launching the Oprah Winfrey Network. Upon its January 2011 debut, OWN faced a number of struggles in relation to programming and viewership levels, which had executives torn between aiding that channel or The Hub instead.
Over at Hasbro, they had placed themselves in a tough position by being co-owner of The Hub. Rival toy companies like Mattel refused to purchase advertising space on the channel, which severely stunted its yearly profits (to the point where The Hub only made around $9 million in 2014).
These factors, combined with low ratings in comparison to the Big Three kids' networks and Margaret Loesch preparing to step down from her position, forced Discovery and Hasbro to re-evaluate their partnership with The Hub. In September, it was announced that Discovery would gain majority control of the network (from 50% to 60%) and relaunch it under a new name: Discovery Family.
