What would've happened if The Hub had managed to last at least another 10 years?

[Stumpos]

I know there was a thread about this before but it was locked so I thought I'd make my own about it.

With The Hub rebranding in 2014 to become Discovery Family and eventually going on a bit of a downward spiral until they stopped making any original shows by 2021 and is more or less a rerun house that will become Boomerang 2.0 once the Hasbro contract finishes up, I thought I'd try to have a discussion on what would've happened if The Hub had persisted on longer for at least another 10 years (maybe more if they could've turned things around by then).

Like, what if Margaret Leosch hadn't left when the rebranding happened and was able to keep The Hub without rebranding to Discovery Family? What would've happened with The Hub? How would it have been able to persist and turn things around if it didn't rebrand in 2014 to Discovery Family?

 

[JoeMabbon]

I'm guessing this what if scenario is dependent on Hasbro remaining committed to the network or someone else stepping in as the Hub's primary backer?

 

[the greenman]

Honestly based on the original premise, it could've been like the HULU of stations , primarily focusing on children cartoons IMO. Connected to toy companies like HASBRO and Mattel. However, I can never imagine what for a linear network, maybe app.

Sent from my moto g power (2022) using Tapatalk

 

[aegisrawks]

Pretty Cure airing uncut (The YTV dub made in Canada) and beign a huge hit. Margaret Loesch did Super Sentai, and in one interview she wanted to do anime next but never got the chance.

This is a big precedent for it, because she absolutely championed girls loving action, loving adventure, loving being the hero and saving the day. And another Blue Water Canadian dub got aired on The Hub, Deltora Quest the only anime they aired.

 

[Ace]

The thing is cable's decline would have relegated it to being a rerun channel a few years later anyway.

but I think they could have had more original scripted live action content like sitcoms to broaden it's appeal with families, teens and older kids.

The original animated stuff itself was pretty low budget and mostly appealed to a very young demographic (aside from Dan Vs.) and they didn't really have a lot of talent to make a lot of it work like they made it work with MLP

Perhaps they could have brought in more anime even because this was after Cartoon Network backed off airing a lot of anime unless it was like merch driven like Pokemon or Bakugan on Saturday morning. There was a hole in the market they could have easily filled. It definitely would have helped them get a more teen and adult audience and they could have something PG-level to accompany Dan Vs.

 

[Stumpos]

Perhaps they could have brought in more anime even because this was after Cartoon Network backed off airing a lot of anime unless it was like merch driven like Pokemon or Bakugan on Saturday morning. There was a hole in the market they could have easily filled. It definitely would have helped them get a more teen and adult audience and they could have something PG-level to accompany Dan Vs.

Didn't they also have Transformers Prime and GI Joe Renegades for older audience appeal too?

 

[Ace]

Didn't they also have Transformers Prime and GI Joe Renegades for older audience appeal too?

Yeah but some never before seen acquired content would have definitely helped their situation.