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Creator / Discovery Family
aka: The Hub

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_untitled470_20220113065732.png
Better Together!

"Where everything comes together."
—First slogan used when it was known as The Hub.

On April 30, 2009, it was announced that Hasbro had acquired a 50% stake in Discovery Kids from Discovery Communications, which was in the middle of overhauling its various spin-off channels. At that point Discovery Kids was basically running on auto-pilot, running Edutainment Shows from the early 2000s that hadn't been refreshed for years, with a mixture of acquired programming and other kid-friendly content from sister channels such as Animal Planet that could fit the network's mission.

The resulting joint venture changed the channel's name to The Hub on October 10, 2010 (following a marathon of Kenny the Shark, which was carried over upon the revamp). Discovery oversaw ad sales and distribution, while Hasbro was responsible for programming. The network continued to use the Discovery Kids strategy of branding its educational programming as meeting FCC educational and informational programming guidelines. An on-screen logo lists it as E/I on electronic program guide listings despite the E/I policy being targeted fully to broadcast stations, with cable networks completely excluded from E/I regulations.

As to be expected with a network partially owned by a toy company, Merchandise-Driven programming was a significant part of the channel's schedule. In company with Hasbro product (including franchises with significant storytelling histories), American Greetings was also a presence on the channel. In addition, they aired reruns of kids/family shows from the '80s and '90s and shows that the big three children's networks had no room for anymore, family-friendly movies, original game shows based on Hasbro's several board game properties (including Family Game Night, Scrabble Showdown and The Game of Life), and even older classic sitcoms during the evenings such as Happy Days and The Wonder Years. Their first Reality Show, Majors & Minors, premiered on September 23, 2011. For a while, they even had a sort of SportsCenter meets Entertainment Tonight series called HubWorld, which mainly focused on Hub-related news (such as recaps of what happened on shows the previous week) as well as celebrity interviews and such-fairly unique for a cable network.

During this era, the channel essentially served as a Spiritual Successor to what's currently Freeform, specifically the early '90s Family Channel days (game shows, older family-friendly sitcoms and other programming) and to the "Twister" era of Fox Family (off-the-wall cartoons, often imported from Canada, and reruns of older, well-remembered cartoons). Due to the prevalence of Hasbro's '80s franchises on the channel, like Transformers, it had a substantial Periphery Demographic of 20-35 year olds. The surprise favorite of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (carrying its own wide demographic spread) also helped to support the rebooted channel's newfound success. Likewise, the channel promoted one of the most well-received incarnations of Transformers to date: Transformers: Prime.

On a darker note, The Hub was infamous for making the videos hosted on its website a ugly case of No Export for You. They have pinned the blame on Hasbro Studios' international licensing deals with other networks including: Turner Broadcasting (of Cartoon Network and Boomerang) in some countries, Lagardère Active (of Canal J, Tiji and Guili) in France, Tiny Pop in the UK, Nelonen (and Fox for Transformers: Prime) in Finland, Hasbro's licensing partners in Japan (Takara Tomy for Transformers Prime and Bushiroad for MLP, both through TV Tokyo and its affiliates), Disney Channel in Spain, and Corus Entertainment (YTV, Treehouse TV, and Teletoon) in Canada.

In September 2014, it was announced that Discovery Communications would acquire 10% of Hasbro's stake on the network, which means they would take majority control of the network back. Thus, Hub Network would become Discovery Family, aimed at both kids and their parents. Hasbro still has some influence on the network; while the initial press release stated they would control six hours of daytime programming, this appears to have been expanded to 12 hours. Shows acquired and programmed by Hasbro air from 5am to 5pm Eastern Time (Which means if you live on the East Coast and don't have any issues of recording TV programs, you're screwed).

The rest of the day of 2014, the classic comedy lineup being removed for repeats of Discovery library content, with family-friendly movies in primetime added with later on. While ongoing Hasbro-produced cartoons from The Hub are able to continue airing new episodes on Discovery Family, Hasbro decided that Transformers: Robots in Disguise, a sequel to Transformers Prime, would air instead of Cartoon Network, as the new channel's demographics were seen as less favorable compared to Cartoon Network's male-oriented boy audiences.note 

After Discovery Family's launch on October 13, 2014, Discovery fired The Hub's promotional staff and discarded the HubWorld website in favor of a new website that currently just has a schedule and channel finder. HubWorld's older practice of fully streaming episodes in the United States was discarded altogether and later replaced with the Discovery Family GO Android/iOS app, which streams network programming to people who subscribe to the channel with certain cable/satellite or OTT providers (with Chromecast support).

The Hub is not to be confused with a Hub Level, or the city of Boston.

Shows created for The Hub/Discovery Family:

Syndicated programs that are airing, or have aired on The Hub note :

The Hub also originally slated to air My Little Pony Tales, The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, Pinky and the Brain and Freakazoid! in late 2014, but this was abandoned due to the rebrand of Discovery Family.

Discovery-produced programs airing on Discovery Family during midday timeslots:

Shows only aired on Discovery Kids:

Let's Go!

Alternative Title(s): The Hub, Hasbros The Hub, Discovery Kids

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