Deadline is reporting that The Hub, a joint venture with Discovery Networks and Hasbro, is no more. The channel will be re-branded in “Discovery: XYZ” fashion, most likely Discovery Family. They will also be taking a larger stake of the channel by acquiring Hasbro shares. Hasbro will retain some interest and continue to provide programming from 9 AM – 3 PM, so we should still see Transformers and other programming on the station. Whether or not they will also get prime time slots for first run episodes, not mentioned here. Check the full details over at Deadline and discuss on the forums!
DESTRO says
The Hub No More - Discovery to Rebrand the Hub and Take Larger Stake
The Hub No More - Discovery to Rebrand the Hub and Take Larger Stake - GI Joe News
C.I.A.D. says
Eh, it was only a matter of time.
dj7000 says
geez better get those rah toons archived
fireflyguy says
It sure wasn't the Disney channel. I wonder if they'll show ARAH reruns anymore? The idea of the channel was good, but like many things with Hasbro, poorly executed.
CobraOfficer999 says
Yeah. Playing RAH, which would've been a better draw for viewers, at 430AM, and running 10 MLP episodes back-to-back-to-back from 7AM-2PM. What were they thinking?
monstermonkey says
I just hope they start airing Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley again at 11pm. That was a nice way to end the night.
Ike Carr says
As far as I'm concerned. The network was done when they started rerunning the dreaded STEP BY STEP.
DESTRO says
One step closer to being purchased by Disney.
Steevy Maximus says
It would be no different than the video game market:
In 2002, Microsoft spent BILLIONS to establish itself in that market, and took well over 5 years of multimillion dollar losses before it finally started to eek out a profit. And its presence finally forced Sega out of the console market.
So I view Hub as the equivalent as a new party trying to launch a new game console in the current market: unless they spend BILLIONS to do it, or stick it out through a couple console cycles (itself hundreds of millions), you really can't compete with Playstation, XBOX or Nintendo, who are all well-entrenched in their corners of the market.
To be brutally honest, I think a more pragmatic solution is to use Netflix. It has better market penetration than ANY given channel (effectively everyone with a cell, computer, console or even TV has access to it), and I think it is more worth the effort to maybe give Netflix some exclusive kids content (like, say, that new Transformers cartoon?) and let Netflix handle promotion than trying to find a "traditional" outlet for it or future Joe cartoons.
I find it telling that the first page, the first thing on the screen, of the kids section are links to Transformers Prime and GI Joe Renegades. I'm not sure you could really get better positioning
46 Zone says
I could see this channel being more successful, if they made it HD, and put it in the same channel grouping with all the other kids channels. Maybe we would have watched it more.
Keep reading: The Hub No More - Discovery to Rebrand the Hub and Take Larger Stake - Page 2
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