Why is Discovery Family/The Hub no longer doing original animated programming?

[Takao]

Here's the entirety of the Friendship is Magic TV show, for free, legally, in HD: https://www.kidoodle.tv/1576/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic

Just an FYI: zombie channels don't survive off of ad-revenue. Largely, they're zombie channels because their viewership is too low to attract the advertisers necessary to fund new content. They survive off of subscription revenue. Even channels no one watches (like this one), can have millions of customers paying a few cents a month because it's included in a pay-TV package they subscribe to. I don't know Discovery Family's carriage numbers, nor the price Discovery charges pay-TV providers to carry it, so these are hypothetical figures. Say the channel is in 20 million homes and they get 5 cents a month off of each subscription. That's a million dollars a month, or $12 million a year. The costs to operate this channel are very low. It has no first-run content and no dedicated full-time staff.

Zombie channels die when their contracts with the pay-TV providers are up for renewal and the latter decide it isn't worth carrying anymore. Larger companies like WBD have the ability to bundle their "popular" channels, allowing their zombies to stick around longer.

 

[CassieTheDragon]

The Hub already had an uphill battle to begin with. Cartoon Network was going through a renaissance period for their cartoons in the early 2010s, and IIRC you had to pay extra for The Hub, much like NickToons and Boomerang.

Again, one hit show (MLP), maybe two with LPS 2012, vs Adventure Time, Regular Show and Gumball for Cartoon Network, (along with Gravity Falls and Phineas and Ferb for Disney).

 

[FirePuppy]

Here's the entirety of the Friendship is Magic TV show, for free, legally, in HD: https://www.kidoodle.tv/1576/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic

Oh my goodness! How in the world did that happen? I'm surprised -- more of in a good way, that is.

 

[Moe]

I don't really care about this channel. I'm only concerned about Hasbro's partnerships due to my ongoing fandom of MLP: Friendship is Magic.

Netflix only have 4 seasons of MLP: Friendship is Magic and I'm surprised that they haven't add 5 seasons remaining.

Apple TV app/iTunes and Amazon have all 9 seasons available to purchase but I do acknowledge that you prefer streaming service to air all seasons.

I absolutely hate to see Netflix partially order certain seasons, not whole seasons, but I saw partial seasons with other Hasbro shows, so Hasbro can be blamed for this.

I like Hasbro shows are Transformers and GI Joe.

Update: It looks like @Takao helped to find a streaming service that have all seasons of MLP: FiM.

The only advice I can give to that is: enjoy the reruns while they're on there and purchase the episodes on physical media if they're available. That way you can watch the show whenever you want regardless of what TV is doing, especially since FiM is over and Hasbro has already moved on to their next MLP show.

FirePuppy is magician and they are going to turn you into little pony to join with MLP, and there is possible crossover MLP and My Lottery Dream Home, just kidding.

 

[FirePuppy]

Here's an expanded list of events that happened on Discovery Family within the last 10 years, from the time when Discovery re-acquired 10% of Hasbro's stake in the network to the present day.

• 2014: There were at least 14 shows produced by Hasbro that I can think of that were carried over from the Hub Network to the then-new Discovery Family Channel. They comprised of four game shows (Family Game Night, The Game of Life, Pictureka! and Scrabble Showdown), three Transformers shows (Prime, Rescue Bots and original series), two G.I. Joes (A Real American Hero and Renegades), Jem, My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, Pound Puppies, and Littlest Pet Shop.
• 2015: G.I. Joe: Renegades and Jem (and the Holograms) were removed, and Blazing Team: Masters of Yo Kwon Do became the first Hasbro-produced show out of five to premiere on the then-new Discovery Family, putting the total number of remaining shows to 13 out of 15.
• 2016: Family Game Night was removed, bringing the total number of remaining shows to 12 out of 15.
• 2018: Littlest Pet Shop: A World of Our Own and Hanazuki: Full of Treasures premiered, bringing the total number of remaining shows up to 14 out of 17.
• 2019: Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy premiered, and The Game of Life was permanently removed, putting the total number of remaining shows to 14 out of 18.
• 2020: Pictureka!, Scrabble Showdown and Hanazuki: Full of Treasures were all removed from Discovery Family, before Hasbro's last new show, My Little Pony: Pony Life, premiered there. This brought the total number of remaining shows down to 12 out of 19.
• 2021: The last new episodes of Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy and My Little Pony: Pony Life premiered on Discovery Family, ending all production of new programs on the channel for good after that.

From 2022 to 2023, upon renewal of the contract between Hasbro and Discovery Family, the latter lost seven more shows produced by the former.

• The Transformers (1984) last aired in January 2022.
• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and Blazing Team: Masters of Yo Kwon Do both last aired in May 2022.
• Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy last aired in March 2023.
• Transformers: Prime last aired in August 2023.
• My Little Pony: Pony Life last aired in September 2023.
• Littlest Pet Shop: A World of Our Own last aired in November 2023, and was the last show to be removed from the channel to date.

Of the 14 shows out of 19 that were permanently removed from Discovery Family over the years, eight of them are not available at all on streaming. Those eight shows are Family Game Night, Scrabble Showdown, The Game of Life, Blazing Team: Masters of Yo Kwon Do, Hanazuki: Full of Treasures, Littlest Pet Shop: A World of Our Own, Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy, and My Little Pony: Pony Life. The other six can only be found on Tubi, in which a few of them are not even in complete-series form.

 

[CassieTheDragon]

Here's an expanded list of events that happened on Discovery Family within the last 10 years, from the time when Discovery re-acquired 10% of Hasbro's stake in the network to the present day.

• 2014: There were at least 14 shows produced by Hasbro that I can think of that were carried over from the Hub Network to the then-new Discovery Family Channel. They comprised of four game shows (Family Game Night, The Game of Life, Pictureka! and Scrabble Showdown), three Transformers shows (Prime, Rescue Bots and original series), two G.I. Joes (A Real American Hero and Renegades), Jem, My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, Pound Puppies, and Littlest Pet Shop.
• 2015: G.I. Joe: Renegades and Jem (and the Holograms) were removed, and Blazing Team: Masters of Yo Kwon Do became the first Hasbro-produced show out of five to premiere on the then-new Discovery Family, putting the total number of remaining shows to 13 out of 15.
• 2016: Family Game Night was removed, bringing the total number of remaining shows to 12 out of 15.
• 2018: Littlest Pet Shop: A World of Our Own and Hanazuki: Full of Treasures premiered, bringing the total number of remaining shows up to 14 out of 17.
• 2019: Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy premiered, and The Game of Life was permanently removed, putting the total number of remaining shows to 14 out of 18.
• 2020: Pictureka!, Scrabble Showdown and Hanazuki: Full of Treasures were all removed from Discovery Family, before Hasbro's last new show, My Little Pony: Pony Life, premiered there. This brought the total number of remaining shows down to 12 out of 19.
• 2021: The last new episodes of Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy and My Little Pony: Pony Life premiered on Discovery Family, ending all production of new programs on the channel for good after that.

From 2022 to 2023, upon renewal of the contract between Hasbro and Discovery Family, the latter lost seven more shows produced by the former.

• The Transformers (1984) last aired in January 2022.
• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and Blazing Team: Masters of Yo Kwon Do both last aired in May 2022.
• Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy last aired in March 2023.
• Transformers: Prime last aired in August 2023.
• My Little Pony: Pony Life last aired in September 2023.
• Littlest Pet Shop: A World of Our Own last aired in November 2023, and was the last show to be removed from the channel to date.

Of the 14 shows out of 19 that were permanently removed from Discovery Family over the years, eight of them are not available at all on streaming. Those eight shows are Family Game Night, Scrabble Showdown, The Game of Life, Blazing Team: Masters of Yo Kwon Do, Hanazuki: Full of Treasures, Littlest Pet Shop: A World of Our Own, Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy, and My Little Pony: Pony Life. The other six can only be found on Tubi, in which a few of them are not even in complete-series form.

I've never even heard of Blazing Team

Some show for a toy i've never even heard of

 

[Stumpos]

So are we feeling knowing we're now less than a year away from the Hasbro/Discovery Family agreement from expiring on March 31st of next year?

Anyone think it'll be a sad end of an era when MLP leaves Discovery Family? That's the equivalent of when SpongeBob ever leaves Nickelodeon for good. Sure streaming's a thing, but that's not 100% a good bet anymore considering how we have streaming services removing content and purging it (looking at Max and Paramount Plus). And now kids who watch TV won't be able to casually discover MLP on TV anymore.

 

[FirePuppy]

Those shows all ceased production back in 2014, so neither Hasbro nor Discovery are likely to make any kind of announcement regarding them; they'll likely just linger on DF for a couple of more years and/or just quietly disappear one day and resurface on some streaming service.

A couple of more years? I thought their contract was supposed to end in less than one year.

And besides, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is no longer airing on weekends starting next month, with Looney Tunes taking its place. This is a clear sign for the network gradually wanting to get rid of Hasbro's shows for good.

 

[Stumpos]

A couple of more years? I thought their contract was supposed to end in less than one year.

And besides, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is no longer airing on weekends starting next month, with Looney Tunes taking its place. This is a clear sign for the network gradually wanting to get rid of Hasbro's shows for good.

Where's the source on the weekends no longer having MLP stuff? They're still airing Equestria Girls content on weekends.

And anyway isn't it sad how if MLP leaves Discovery Family, how will kids who don't have access to a streaming service be able to casually discover MLP if it isn't airing on TV anymore? Not everyone can afford a streaming service. That's like if Nickelodeon stopped airing SpongeBob on their network or if Cartoon Network stopped airing Gumball.

 

[PinkieLopBun]

And anyway isn't it sad how if MLP leaves Discovery Family, how will kids who don't have access to a streaming service be able to casually discover MLP if it isn't airing on TV anymore? Not everyone can afford a streaming service.

Does it really matter if they aren’t? It ended in 2019. Besides, there’s a good chance someone that can’t afford a subscription streaming service doesn’t have Discovery Family either. Even a basic package costs more than Netflix and at least in my case it’s on a higher priced package. Also:

Here's the entirety of the Friendship is Magic TV show, for free, legally, in HD: https://www.kidoodle.tv/1576/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic

 

[JMTV]

And anyway isn't it sad how if MLP leaves Discovery Family, how will kids who don't have access to a streaming service be able to casually discover MLP if it isn't airing on TV anymore? Not everyone can afford a streaming service. That's like if Nickelodeon stopped airing SpongeBob on their network or if Cartoon Network stopped airing Gumball.

Why is that a sad thing if MLP FIM ended FIVE YEARS AGO? It's old news. A lot of people moved on to a newer generation of MLP. Besides popularity, Hasbro most likely keep rerunning FIM for ad revenue in syndication. Once Hasbro's contract with Discovery is up by 2025, they would just stopped airing it altogether.

Besides, kids are gonna watch MLP elsewhere like YouTube, Netflix, and even Kidoodle TV, which has ALL 9 SEASONS of the series. So, they're gonna be fine.

Also, I'm just going to this out of the way, saying "that's like if Nickelodeon stopped airing SpongeBob on their network or if Cartoon Network stopped airing Gumball" makes no sense to me. They are two completely different things. MLP has several different incarnations for decades, while Spongebob is just one show (Granted, they had spin-offs, but still). They're not that comparable.

Also, I wouldn't count Gumball since for what I've heard, despite the show hasn't aired new episodes in five years, the show's future still remains up in the air. So I doubt CN is going to get rid of it.

 

[PF9]

If NBCUniversal bought Hasbro as I mentioned earlier in the thread, they could put MLP: FIM on Peacock as well as use it to replace infomercials in the Cozi TV line-up.

 

[harry580]

or maybe make a deal like plutotv or tubi aka the free streaming services where you can't pay for everything

 

[Stumpos]

Also, I'm just going to this out of the way, saying "that's like if Nickelodeon stopped airing SpongeBob on their network or if Cartoon Network stopped airing Gumball" makes no sense to me. They are two completely different things. MLP has several different incarnations for decades, while Spongebob is just one show (Granted, they had spin-offs, but still). They're not that comparable.

Also, I wouldn't count Gumball since for what I've heard, despite the show hasn't aired new episodes in five years, the show's future still remains up in the air. So I doubt CN is going to get rid of it.

It's mostly because MLP FiM was the flagship show for The Hub/Discovery Family the same way SpongeBob is for Nickelodeon and Gumball currently is for Cartoon Network.

How likely is it that viewership is gonna worsen once they lose MLP FiM for good? Given it was their flagship show, Discovery Family losing that will pretty much make it lose what separates it from Boomerang.

 

[JMTV]

It's mostly because MLP FiM was the flagship show for The Hub/Discovery Family the same way SpongeBob is for Nickelodeon and Gumball currently is for Cartoon Network.

How likely is it that viewership is gonna worsen once they lose MLP FiM for good? Given it was their flagship show, Discovery Family losing that will pretty much make it lose what separates it from Boomerang.

Okay, but like I said, there are tons of other options to watch MLP FIM rather than on Discovery Family. It's not like kids are going to lose access to MLP on a higher tier cable channel that no one even has. Why spend so much money on cable just to watch one show on higher tier cable packages, when I can just save money by stream it online? It's really that simple.

FIM maybe their flagship show for Discovery Family, the viewership of the channel doesn't really matter that much since no was watching cable anymore.

So, again, I don't get why this is such a big deal to you?

 

[Silverstar]

It's mostly because MLP FiM was the flagship show for The Hub/Discovery Family the same way SpongeBob is for Nickelodeon and Gumball currently is for Cartoon Network.

There's a difference: SpongeBob is still in production, and season 7 of Gumball is forthcoming. MLP:FiM by contrast ended in 2019, so it's not really the same thing at all. You seem want the show to stay on for some imaginary ideal, but TV execs don't care about that sort of thing, especially when it's a show they don't own.

How likely is it that viewership is gonna worsen once they lose MLP FiM for good? Given it was their flagship show, Discovery Family losing that will pretty much make it lose what separates it from Boomerang.

No offense, but so what if it does? Discovery Family is only in a small fraction of homes and the entire series of MLP can be legally streamed elsewhere, plus the entire season is on DVD/Blu-Ray, so what would/will they be losing besides this imagined ideal that you want them to adhere to for reasons? What will happen is the channel will continue to run on autopilot like it's been doing for years now. Honestly, this isn't the dire issue you want to make it out to be.

 

[Stumpos]

There's a difference: SpongeBob is still in production, and season 7 of Gumball is forthcoming. MLP:FiM by contrast ended in 2019, so it's not really the same thing at all. You seem want the show to stay on for some imaginary ideal, but TV execs don't care about that sort of thing, especially when it's a show they don't own.

No offense, but so what if it does? Discovery Family is only in a small fraction of homes and the entire series of MLP can be legally streamed elsewhere, plus the entire season is on DVD/Blu-Ray, so what would/will they be losing besides this imagined ideal that you want them to adhere to for reasons? What will happen is the channel will continue to run on autopilot like it's been doing for years now. Honestly, this isn't the dire issue you want to make it out to be.

Fair. I guess I just felt strongly because of nostalgia but you're right in how Discovery Family has outgrown the need for Hasbro stuff by now. It'll be the end of an era for sure next year and make the already on autopilot channel feel emptier.

On another note, how likely is it that Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs 1993 will air on Discovery Family? Considering Warner Bros now owns the channel and the fact both shows used to air during The Hub era, how cool would it be for those two shows to air on Discovery Family? Especially since they are airing stuff like The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries and Baby Looney Tunes there so those two wouldn't be out of place and bonus for prior history in The Hub era.

 

[JMTV]

On another note, how likely is it that Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs 1993 will air on Discovery Family?

That would be nice to see, but considering that MeTV Toons is on the horizon, I's rather have them move over there.

 

[PinkieLopBun]

On another note, how likely is it that Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs 1993 will air on Discovery Family? Considering Warner Bros now owns the channel and the fact both shows used to air during The Hub era, how cool would it be for those two shows to air on Discovery Family? Especially since they are airing stuff like The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries and Baby Looney Tunes there so those two wouldn't be out of place and bonus for prior history in The Hub era.

They're apparently out of the question for Boomerang, so I don't see Discovery Family getting them either.

 

[Moe]

They're apparently out of the question for Boomerang, so I don't see Discovery Family getting them either.

Oh wow, it is more harder than I thought because Hulu stream those shows before prior to delist because of streaming rights expired.

Good thing, I have all seasons of Animaniacs and first season of TTA (65 episodes) that I bought on iTunes, so second and third seasons of TTA are not available to buy.