As Discovery Kids (1996–2010) Discovery Communications launched Discovery Kids Channel on October 22, 1996, as part of a suite of four new
digital cable channels that included
Discovery Travel & Living Network,
Discovery Civilization Network, and
Discovery Science Network. Upon its launch, the channel primarily offered adventure, nature, and science-themed programs aimed towards a children's audience between ages 6 and 11. Marjorie Kaplan, the network's senior vice president, explained that the creation of Discovery Kids Channel was influenced primarily by children, who were watching its
parent network's programming together with their parents. From 1996 to 2000, Discovery Kids Channel was carried by only a select few cable television providers. In 2001, the channel shortened its name to Discovery Kids and, by the end of the year, was carried in at least 15 million homes. In December 2001, Discovery Kids announced a partnership with
NBC, in which it would produce a new Saturday morning block for the network known as
Discovery Kids on NBC, beginning in September 2002. The block replaced
TNBC, a teen-oriented block consisting of live-action shows and sitcoms, and featured programming that met the
educational programming guidelines from the U.S.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It included new original series (such as the
reality television series
Endurance), existing Discovery Kids programming, and children's spin-offs of programs from sister networks, such as
Animal Planet and Discovery Channel. With the launch of the new block, Discovery Kids also branched out into original animated programming with the premieres of
Kenny the Shark and
Tutenstein. In March 2006, Discovery declined to renew its contract with NBC for its Saturday morning block, citing a desire to focus exclusively on the Discovery Kids channel. Since the launch of the NBC block, Discovery Kids had grown its cable carriage to over 43 million homes. NBC would replace the Discovery Kids block with
Qubo in September 2006.
As The Hub / Hub Network (2010–2014) Development On April 30, 2009, toy manufacturer and media company
Hasbro announced that it would form a
joint venture with Discovery Communications to re-launch Discovery Kids as a new, family-oriented television channel. Hasbro paid $300 million for a 50% ownership stake in the channel, along with an additional investment of $371,783,000 in the joint venture. Under the arrangement, Discovery would oversee advertising sales and distribution for the new channel, while Hasbro would be in charge of acquiring and producing programming. While the network aimed to maintain educational series (including those carried over from Discovery Kids), plans called for original programs based on Hasbro-owned franchises, such as
G.I. Joe,
My Little Pony,
Transformers, as well as
game shows adapted from its board game brands. Discovery believed that partnering with Hasbro would attract better-quality advertisers to the channel. Loesch had previously served as president of
Fox Kids from 1990 to 1997, and at
Marvel Productions from 1984 to 1990. In her tenure at Marvel, she assisted the production of several Hasbro tie-in series, including
My Little Pony and
The Transformers. In January 2010, Discovery and Hasbro announced that the new network would be known as
The Hub; two months later, the companies announced that The Hub would launch on October 10. Its first branding was developed by Troika Design Group, and built around a logo nicknamed the "hubble"—designed to embody a "catalyst of action and imagination". The final logo design was the result of numerous drafts by Troika designers, some of which incorporated typography similar to Hasbro's logo.
Programming and goals The Hub would continue targeting Discovery Kids' main demographic of children aged 2–14 (a market which staff felt was being abandoned by its competitors, such as
Nickelodeon and
Disney Channel, in favor of
tweens), but also planned to feature a primetime block with family-oriented programming. Loesch also said that Hasbro was partnering with Discovery Communications for the channel, and declared "we have programming from them and are using their DNA". Discovery Kids was re-launched as The Hub at 10:00 a.m.
ET, following a four-hour
marathon of
Kenny the Shark. The first program to air on the new channel was
The Twisted Whiskers Show, followed by episodes of
Dennis and Gnasher,
Cosmic Quantum Ray,
Atomic Betty, and the 2004 film
Garfield: The Movie. In a June 2011 debt filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, Discovery Communications indicated that the channel may be worth less than recently believed, based on low viewership figures. The management of The Hub subsequently underwent a fair value analysis of the channel. A Discovery Communications spokesperson considered the action to be "a
pro-forma accounting exercise", and noted that Discovery felt "very positive and encouraged by The Hub's early days' performance, and ability to grow its audience in the future." In March 2013, The Hub picked up ''
Stan Lee's Mighty 7'', an animated pilot film that aired on February 1, 2014. The network also began to phase in an amended branding as the Hub Network. On January 13, 2014, Hub Network introduced an updated logo and a new imaging campaign, "Making Family Fun", which was developed by the Los Angeles–based agency Oishii Creative.
As Discovery Family (2014–present) On June 12, 2014, it was reported that Margaret Loesch would resign from her role as Hub Network president and CEO by the end of the year. On September 17, 2014,
The Wall Street Journal reported that Discovery Communications was preparing to acquire a controlling stake in Hub Network from Hasbro, then rebrand it as
Discovery Family. Along with Discovery's CFO Andrew Warren, Hasbro staff acknowledged that increasing competition in the children's media landscape ― especially by subscription video-on-demand services such as
Netflix — had affected the network's overall performance and Hasbro's original content. Discovery and Hasbro publicly announced the rebranding on September 25, 2014. Hasbro's CEO
Brian Goldner explained that Discovery Family would be the "next chapter" in its joint venture with Discovery, "[combining] highly rated award-winning storytelling around Hasbro's brands and Discovery's most popular non-fiction shows that appeal to both children and families alike." Hub Network was re-launched as Discovery Family on October 13, 2014 — just over four years since the earlier re-launch as The Hub. With these changes, Discovery Communications now held a 60% stake in the joint venture; Hasbro retained a 40% stake and continued to program Discovery Family's daytime lineup with children's programming. Following the re-launch, the network's primetime lineup was replaced by reruns of family-oriented, factual programming from Discovery Channel's library. Henry Schleiff (who oversaw sister networks such as
Destination America and
Investigation Discovery) led the re-launched network, with Tom Cosgrove (who previously served as CEO of Discovery Channel and
Science) as general manager. With these shifts in the network's operation, it was announced on October 7, 2014 that the
Transformers: Prime follow-up
Transformers: Robots in Disguise, which was initially announced for Hub Network, would instead air on
Cartoon Network (whose parent company would later merge with Discovery). Hasbro Studios president Stephen Davis felt that Cartoon Network was a more appropriate home for a
Transformers series due to its male-oriented demographics, Despite the move for
Robots in Disguise, fellow Hub Network
Transformers series
Transformers: Rescue Bots remained on Discovery Family for its third season.
Warner Bros. Discovery era On February 7, 2022, Hasbro CFO Deborah Thomas stated that the company was exploring strategic alternatives for its stake in the channel, citing the growing shift towards
cord cutting and streaming services. She noted that the channel had been a "terrific investment" that had "driven over a $1 billion in revenue for the company", but that there had been "changes" in the cable industry since. These discussions came ahead of the then-upcoming merger of
Discovery, Inc. with
WarnerMedia to form
Warner Bros. Discovery, a transaction which brought Discovery Family into the Entertainment Group division of
Warner Bros. Discovery Networks. Following the merger, Discovery Family was placed under the oversight of Cartoon Network's president
Michael Ouweleen. Despite Hasbro's
2021 annual report reporting that its licensing agreement to produce and broadcast new television shows on the channel ended in 2021, the next annual report stated that its operating agreement with Discovery was renewed to run until March 31, 2025, though this was filed months before Hasbro spun off its
non-children's entertainment assets and instituted layoffs. According to Warner Bros. Discovery's 2022 annual report, neither that company nor Hasbro took any action regarding the latter's 40% interest in Discovery Family within 2022, when the decision was originally due. Despite continuous financial losses on the channel, Hasbro did not exercise the right by the election period expiration date of March 31, 2025, and the company's noncontrolling interest was "reclassified from redeemable noncontrolling interest to noncontrolling interest outside of stockholders' equity on the Company's consolidated balance sheets". By the end of the year, Hasbro had no remaining investment balance for DFC. == Programming ==