RandomMe
Walrus Toy Store owner
Tomorrow should have marked the tenth anniversary of a channel that had so many potential in becoming the fourth name in joining the Big 3: CN, Disney and Nick. The Hub replaced the vegetative Discovery Kids, whose mindset in the USA was still in a way true to what it was for most of its existence, an educational kids' channel, but the Latin American counterpart simply refused to go its own way and become a pre-school channel in its own right.
In April 2009, shortly after the Discovery Kids LA rebrand, Discovery Communications and Hasbro were announcing a 50/50 joint-venture to replace DK in the United States. By 2002, the channel had been broadcasting to 43 million homes as a digital cable/satellite add-on channel. While the parent network has changed its logo the previous year (and had shifted gears towards unscripted programming for longer), Discovery Kids was still stuck using the old aesthetic and blocks, including Ready Set Learn, defected from TLC, and primetime block @DK.
Hasbro paid $300 million for 50% ownership of the network. Under the arrangement, Discovery would be in charge of handling advertising sales and distribution for the new service, while Hasbro would be involved in acquiring and producing programming. High on the cards were shows that were based off existing Hasbro properties like Transformers and My Little Pony, as well as primetime gameshows inspired by their board games, and educational content, some of them leftovers from the former channel.
Then they announced the name for the new channel: The Hub. More than just a kids' network, it was positioned to be a "family network" by the two parties involved (the gameshows were a prime example of that). The name was announced in January 2010 and strategically launched at 10am on October 10th, 2010: the tenth hour of the tenth day of the tenth month of the tenth year of the century. Up until then Discovery Kids was just sitting there doing its own thing, showing four hours' worth of Kenny the Shark reruns. The channel opened with a sneak preview of what it would air.
The network's logo, nicknamed "hubble bubble tubble", was considered to be a "catalyst of action and imagination", basically what a kids' network would be. Before the network's premiere, sneak previews aired on other Discovery networks: Cosmic Quantum Ray on Science, Twisted Whiskers on Animal Planet and Family Game Night on TLC (can you imagine TLC having a gameshow?).
As it turns out, the channel's crown jewel was MLP:FIM as within a few weeks it attracted unexpectedly high viewing figures and generated the brony fandom, causing the series to lose its E/I credentials quickly. With the rise of the network, a new Huburbia forum was added to Toonzone.
At launch, it was a kids channel from 6am to 8pm, with a separate pre-school block (HubBub) running in the morning hours. After 8pm it consisted of syndicated TV shows (mostly sitcoms) and movies, the "family" part of the channel. That also included an action block called HubBoom that mainly aired action cartoons. Later the primetime slot was renamed Family Prime Time. In addition, the channel had 3DW (Three-Day Weekend), meaning that the weekend schedule would start on Friday instead of Saturday unlike all of its competitors.
Perhaps the biggest gem The Hub ever had was Dan Vs., a show that to my extent was only exported to Russia (2X2 probably) and Israel (Arutz HaYeladim). @Dan's Revenge still has his Dan avatar many years after the show and the network fell into obscurity.
And who can't forget The Aquabats?
The Hub continued doing its own thing in the next couple of years, however in June 2011, it was announced that following a debt filling from the Securities and Exchange Commission, they realized that the channel wasn't worth keeping at all. Comparatively speaking, The Hub was a major "minor". Its status was confined to the same levels as Boomerang, all of Nick's sister channels and Disney XD: premium-ish kids channels available on higher tiers. I don't know if any company even offered The Hub or its successor on the basic tier. As of 2013, network management was still evaluating the debt situation.
In 2013 it purchased the rights to air Stan Lee's Mighty 7 and, surprise!: the Animaniacs. It and a few other WB properties were likely sublicensed to air on the network. Following the revision of the network in 2011/2012, HubBub was dropped from the schedule.
2014 started with a rebrand, one that I personally despised at the time. The channel's logo changed a little and the network was now known as Hub Network. This was proven to be a bad omen: Margaret Loesch, president of the network, was going to step down by the end of the year. In September it was announced that Discovery was going to buy stakes from Hasbro and retool it as Discovery Family. Some shows like MLP:FIM were kept but Transformers: Robots in Disguise, initially scheduled to run on The Hub, would end up airing on Cartoon Network instead. Discovery took the advantage of making it a proper family network as ABC Family (renamed Freeform in January 2016) was now aiming towards teenage girls. The Hub made its last broadcast on October 13, 2014. The Huburbia board was dropped accordingly, with all posts moving to this board.
Exactly four years, two days and twenty hours had passed from its launch. The Hub shut down in what was basically the world's 2013/2014 watershed, as people started getting more into gadgets than anything else and kids are moving away from linear TV to streaming. Discovery Family is still a higher tier channel. Who knows how long will it stay on the air.
Now imagine what would have happened if they picked another partner or let Hasbro handle the network by itself. How long would it last?
In April 2009, shortly after the Discovery Kids LA rebrand, Discovery Communications and Hasbro were announcing a 50/50 joint-venture to replace DK in the United States. By 2002, the channel had been broadcasting to 43 million homes as a digital cable/satellite add-on channel. While the parent network has changed its logo the previous year (and had shifted gears towards unscripted programming for longer), Discovery Kids was still stuck using the old aesthetic and blocks, including Ready Set Learn, defected from TLC, and primetime block @DK.
Hasbro paid $300 million for 50% ownership of the network. Under the arrangement, Discovery would be in charge of handling advertising sales and distribution for the new service, while Hasbro would be involved in acquiring and producing programming. High on the cards were shows that were based off existing Hasbro properties like Transformers and My Little Pony, as well as primetime gameshows inspired by their board games, and educational content, some of them leftovers from the former channel.
Then they announced the name for the new channel: The Hub. More than just a kids' network, it was positioned to be a "family network" by the two parties involved (the gameshows were a prime example of that). The name was announced in January 2010 and strategically launched at 10am on October 10th, 2010: the tenth hour of the tenth day of the tenth month of the tenth year of the century. Up until then Discovery Kids was just sitting there doing its own thing, showing four hours' worth of Kenny the Shark reruns. The channel opened with a sneak preview of what it would air.
The network's logo, nicknamed "hubble bubble tubble", was considered to be a "catalyst of action and imagination", basically what a kids' network would be. Before the network's premiere, sneak previews aired on other Discovery networks: Cosmic Quantum Ray on Science, Twisted Whiskers on Animal Planet and Family Game Night on TLC (can you imagine TLC having a gameshow?).
As it turns out, the channel's crown jewel was MLP:FIM as within a few weeks it attracted unexpectedly high viewing figures and generated the brony fandom, causing the series to lose its E/I credentials quickly. With the rise of the network, a new Huburbia forum was added to Toonzone.
At launch, it was a kids channel from 6am to 8pm, with a separate pre-school block (HubBub) running in the morning hours. After 8pm it consisted of syndicated TV shows (mostly sitcoms) and movies, the "family" part of the channel. That also included an action block called HubBoom that mainly aired action cartoons. Later the primetime slot was renamed Family Prime Time. In addition, the channel had 3DW (Three-Day Weekend), meaning that the weekend schedule would start on Friday instead of Saturday unlike all of its competitors.
Perhaps the biggest gem The Hub ever had was Dan Vs., a show that to my extent was only exported to Russia (2X2 probably) and Israel (Arutz HaYeladim). @Dan's Revenge still has his Dan avatar many years after the show and the network fell into obscurity.
And who can't forget The Aquabats?
The Hub continued doing its own thing in the next couple of years, however in June 2011, it was announced that following a debt filling from the Securities and Exchange Commission, they realized that the channel wasn't worth keeping at all. Comparatively speaking, The Hub was a major "minor". Its status was confined to the same levels as Boomerang, all of Nick's sister channels and Disney XD: premium-ish kids channels available on higher tiers. I don't know if any company even offered The Hub or its successor on the basic tier. As of 2013, network management was still evaluating the debt situation.
In 2013 it purchased the rights to air Stan Lee's Mighty 7 and, surprise!: the Animaniacs. It and a few other WB properties were likely sublicensed to air on the network. Following the revision of the network in 2011/2012, HubBub was dropped from the schedule.
2014 started with a rebrand, one that I personally despised at the time. The channel's logo changed a little and the network was now known as Hub Network. This was proven to be a bad omen: Margaret Loesch, president of the network, was going to step down by the end of the year. In September it was announced that Discovery was going to buy stakes from Hasbro and retool it as Discovery Family. Some shows like MLP:FIM were kept but Transformers: Robots in Disguise, initially scheduled to run on The Hub, would end up airing on Cartoon Network instead. Discovery took the advantage of making it a proper family network as ABC Family (renamed Freeform in January 2016) was now aiming towards teenage girls. The Hub made its last broadcast on October 13, 2014. The Huburbia board was dropped accordingly, with all posts moving to this board.
Exactly four years, two days and twenty hours had passed from its launch. The Hub shut down in what was basically the world's 2013/2014 watershed, as people started getting more into gadgets than anything else and kids are moving away from linear TV to streaming. Discovery Family is still a higher tier channel. Who knows how long will it stay on the air.
Now imagine what would have happened if they picked another partner or let Hasbro handle the network by itself. How long would it last?
