The Hub (Johnsonverse)

The Hub is an American cable television channel jointly owned by WBC Networks and the Hasbro Entertainment subsidiary of Hasbro. 
The channel was originally launched by Discovery Communications on October 7, 1996 as Discovery Kids, a spin-off of Discovery Channel which primarily featured science and nature-themed programming aimed towards a youth audience. In 2010, Discovery Kids was relaunched as The Hub as part of a joint venture with Hasbro led by veteran executive Margaret Loesch. The relaunch pivoted the channel towards a general entertainment format, with dayparts targeting preschool, youth, and family audiences respectively. Some of its original programming would include adaptations of Hasbro-owned properties, such as Family Game Night and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
In 2014, Loesch stepped down, and WBC Networks purchased Discovery's stake in The Hub, bringing it under full Johnson control.
== History ==
==As Discovery Kids (1996–2010)==
==As The Hub (2010–present)==
===Programming and development===
===Goals===
===Commercial programming===
===Launch and later years===
== Programming ==
The majority of The Hub's daytime programs are animated and live-action series tied to media franchises owned by Hasbro itself, with newer series produced through the Hasbro Studios and Entertainment One divisions, such as Pound Puppies. It also airs game shows tied to Hasbro's board games, such as Family Game Night, as well as reruns of older series such as The Transformers.
One of the network's most noteworthy series has been My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, an animated series produced as a part of the then-recent revival of Hasbro's My Little Pony franchise. The series not only became The Hub's highest-rated program within its target demographic of young girls, but attracted an unexpectedly significant cult following among male teens and adults; it received a human-focused spin-off subtitled Equestria Girls that ran from October 15, 2013 to May 11, 2021. Following the conclusion of the series on May 1, 2020, a new series subtitled Make Your Mark premiered in November 2021.
The Hatchery – a company co-founded by Margaret Loesch (who have served as the channel's president and CEO from 2009 until 2014) and Bruce Stein in 2003, and have its major stake acquired by American Greetings in 2004 – have supplied certain series to the channel, including Dan Vs. and R. L. Stine's The Haunting Hour. Aside from The Hatchery's productions, American Greetings have also supplied Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures (part of the 2009 relaunch of Strawberry Shortcake, a property which was owned by AG until 2015), The Twisted Whiskers Show, Maryoku Yummy, and Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot to the channel, having named Hasbro as the master toy licensee of Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake in 2008.
The channel has also acquired new series unrelated to properties of Hasbro, The Hatchery and American Greetings, including Animal Mechanicals, The Aquabats! Super Show!, Cosmic Quantum Ray, Majors & Minors, Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch, Secret Millionaires Club, and SheZow.
The channel also airs reruns of other acquired series, such as Fraggle Rock and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, a collection of various Warner Bros. Animation series, such as Batman Beyond, Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Animaniacs, and Tiny Toon Adventures, a few former Fox Kids shows such as Goosebumps and Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, and various off-network sitcoms (including Blossom, Step by Step, and Sister, Sister). A limited amount of original Discovery Kids programming, such as Adventure Camp and Flight 29 Down, remained on the lineup upon its launch as The Hub.
===Primetime and overnight programming===
==Availability==
As of September 2018, approximately 55,238,000 American households (50.9% of households with television) receive The Hub.
The Hub operates one feed nationally, and does not operate a timeshift feed for the west coast. A 1080i high-definition simulcast of the network was introduced alongside its re-launch as The Hub, with PrimeStar, Dish Network, Verizon FiOS, and AT&T U-verse as the first to carry the HD feed.
Based on numbers from Nielsen, Variety ranked The Hub as the 128th most-watched broadcast or cable network in the United States in 2021 based on total viewership.
===International versions===
Category:Johnsonverse