.svg){kind=logo} The network's logo since October 13, 2014; currently used as aon-screen bug and in older promotional advertising. The newer logo below, inaugurated in 2024, is used in promotions and as anelectronic program guide identifier. | |
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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Headquarters | New York City,New York, U.S. |
| Programming | |
| Languages | English Spanish (viaSAP audio track) |
| Picture format | 1080iHDTV |
| Ownership | |
| Parent | Warner Bros. Discovery Global Linear Networks (60%) Hasbro Entertainment (40%) |
| Key people | David Zaslav (president,Warner Bros. Discovery) |
| Sister channels | |
| History | |
| Launched | October 22, 1996; 29 years ago (1996-10-22)[1] |
| Former names |
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| Links | |
| Website | www |
Discovery Family (known on-air asDiscovery Family Channel and abbreviated asDFC) is an Americancable television channel co-owned byWarner Bros. Discovery Global Linear Networks andHasbro Entertainment.
The channel was launched on October 22, 1996 by Discovery Communications (laterDiscovery, Inc.) asDiscovery Kids Channel (laterDiscovery Kids), a child-oriented offshoot ofDiscovery Channel featuring science, nature, and adventure-themed programs. In 2010, Discovery Kids was re-launched asThe Hub (laterHub Network) through ajoint venture with Hasbro led by veteran executiveMargaret Loesch. The re-launch pivoted the channel towards a general entertainment format, withdayparts targeting preschool, youth, and family audiences. Hasbro-owned properties served as the basis for several of The Hub's original programs, includinggame show versions ofboard games and animated series linked to toy lines likeMy Little Pony,Littlest Pet Shop,Pound Puppies,Transformers, andKaijudo.
After Loesch resigned in 2014, Discovery acquired a larger stake in the Hub Network and rebranded it as Discovery Family; while Hasbro continued to program the channel's daytime lineup, its primetime lineup now features a mixture of series from Discovery's other networks. The 2022 merger of Discovery, Inc. withWarnerMedia to form Warner Bros. Discovery has brought Discovery Family under common ownership withCartoon Network;Michael Ouweleen oversees both channels.
As of November 2023[update], Discovery Family is available to approximately 28 million pay television households in the United States — down from its peak of 73 million households in 2013.[2]
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Discovery Communications launched Discovery Kids Channel on October 22, 1996,[1] as part of a suite of four newdigital cable channels that includedDiscovery Travel & Living Network,Discovery Civilization Network, andDiscovery Science Network.[3][4] Upon its launch, the channel primarily offered adventure, nature, and science-themed programs aimed towards a children's audience between ages 6 and 11.[5] Marjorie Kaplan, the network's senior vice president, explained that the creation of Discovery Kids Channel was influenced primarily by children, who were watching itsparent network's programming together with their parents.[6]
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.[5] In September 2001, aCanadian version of Discovery Kids was launched in partnership withCorus Entertainment.[7]
In December 2001, Discovery Kids announced a partnership withNBC, in which it would produce a new Saturday morning block for the network known asDiscovery Kids on NBC, beginning in September 2002. The block replacedTNBC, a teen-oriented block consisting of live-action shows and sitcoms, and featured programming that met theeducational programming guidelines from the U.S.Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It included new original series (such as thereality television seriesEndurance), existing Discovery Kids programming, and children's spin-offs of programs from sister networks, such asAnimal Planet and Discovery Channel.[8]
With the launch of the new block, Discovery Kids also branched out into original animated programming with the premieres ofKenny the Shark andTutenstein.[9][10] 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.[11] NBC would replace the Discovery Kids block withQubo in September 2006.[12]
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On April 30, 2009, toy manufacturer and media companyHasbro announced that it would form ajoint 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.[13]
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 asG.I. Joe,My Little Pony,Transformers, as well asgame shows adapted from its board game brands.[14][15][16] Discovery believed that partnering with Hasbro would attract better-quality advertisers to the channel.[17]
In July 2009, the joint venture appointed veteran television executiveMargaret Loesch as its president andchief executive officer.[18][19] Loesch had previously served as president ofFox Kids from 1990 to 1997, and atMarvel Productions from 1984 to 1990. In her tenure at Marvel, she assisted the production of several Hasbro tie-in series, includingMy Little Pony andThe Transformers.
In January 2010, Discovery and Hasbro announced that the new network would be known asThe 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.[17][20]
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 asNickelodeon andDisney Channel, in favor oftweens), but also planned to feature a primetime block with family-oriented programming.[21][22][23][17] Some of the channel's launch series included the game showFamily Game Night; animated seriesPound Puppies,My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, andDeltora Quest; reruns of theJim Henson seriesFraggle Rock, and the preschool-oriented programsAnimal Mechanicals andThe WotWots.[24][21][25][23] The channel promised to keep the proportion of programs supplied from Hasbro to "less than 20%" of the total of its programming.[22]
In compliance with theChildren's Television Act (CTA), The Hub was to air six minutes of advertisements per hour during programs aimed atpreschoolers, a minimum of 12 minutes per hour during weekday programming, and a minimum of 10.5 minutes on weekends. Throughout the week, the channel would air 10.5 minutes of advertisements per hour, a policy carried over from the Discovery Kids era.[21][22] The Hub planned to selladvertising space to toy companies aside from Hasbro; as reported byAdvertising Age in May 2010, the channel was even in talks withMattel, a major competitor to Hasbro in the toy industry.[21] The Hub, however, also planned to restrict specific categories of advertisements, particularly those promotingjunk food andproducts high in sugar.[25]
A vocal opponent of The Hub was theCampaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), founded bySusan Linn, who expressed concern that Hasbro would exploit the channel as a marketing vehicle for its products. Ahead of the re-launch, the CCFC called the project an "infomercial" and stated they would closely monitor the channel.[17] At the announcement of Discovery and Hasbro's joint venture in April 2009, Linn declared that it would "make a mockery of existing ad limits and the current prohibition of product placement in children's television".[14] She reiterated this sentiment days before the re-launch, telling theLos Angeles Times that "[t]he notion of a toy company owning a television channel for the sole purpose of promoting their toys is egregious practice".[22] In response, Loesch stated that The Hub's goal was to be "vibrant" and "diverse" in its programming, and pointed out that animated series not commissioned by toy companies would still see their merchandise released regardless.[25] 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".[22]
To promote The Hub, previews ofCosmic Quantum Ray,The Twisted Whiskers Show, andFamily Game Night aired onScience Channel,Animal Planet, andTLC, respectively.[26] Discovery Kids was re-launched as The Hub at 10:00 a.m.ET, following a four-hourmarathon ofKenny the Shark. The first program to air on the new channel wasThe Twisted Whiskers Show, followed by episodes ofDennis and Gnasher,Cosmic Quantum Ray,Atomic Betty, and the 2004 filmGarfield: The Movie.[25][23][27]
In a June 2011 debt filing with theSecurities 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 "apro-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."[28][29]
In March 2013, The Hub picked upStan 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.[30] 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.[31]
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.[32] 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 asDiscovery 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 asNetflix — had affected the network's overall performance and Hasbro's original content.[33][34][35] As it was majority-owned by a competitor, other major toy companies such asMattel refused to purchase advertising time on Hub Network, affecting its ability to air advertising that targeted its main audience; by 2014, the network had made only $9 million per year. Discovery staff was also unable to display a full commitment to Hub Network's operation, due to factors such as the troubled launch of theOprah Winfrey Network. Believing that they had overvalued its stake in the venture, Hasbro decided to cede the operation of the network to Discovery so it could focus more on content, and its core toy business.[35]
Discovery and Hasbro publicly announced the rebranding on September 25, 2014. Hasbro's CEOBrian 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.[36] Henry Schleiff (who oversaw sister networks such asDestination America andInvestigation Discovery) led the re-launched network, with Tom Cosgrove (who previously served as CEO of Discovery Channel andScience) as general manager.[36]
In re-launching Hub Network, Discovery executives noted there would be a larger emphasis on programming of interest to both children and their parents; Warren argued that sinceABC Family had become, in his opinion, aimed towards teenage girls, there was a gap in the broadcasting industry for a new, family-oriented network.[33][34] With these shifts in the network's operation, it was announced on October 7, 2014 that theTransformers: Prime follow-upTransformers: Robots in Disguise, which was initially announced for Hub Network, would instead air onCartoon Network (whose parent company would later merge with Discovery).[37] Hasbro Studios president Stephen Davis felt that Cartoon Network was a more appropriate home for aTransformers series due to its male-oriented demographics,[35] describing Hub Network's lineup as "traditionally skewed towards girls".[37] Other recentTransformersanimated series preceding The Hub's launch had aired on Cartoon Network.[38][37] Davis remarked that Hasbro was still "100% committed" to its joint venture with Discovery.[38] Despite the move forRobots in Disguise, fellow Hub NetworkTransformers seriesTransformers: Rescue Bots remained on Discovery Family for its third season.[39]
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 towardscord 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 ofDiscovery, Inc. withWarnerMedia to formWarner Bros. Discovery, a transaction which brought Discovery Family into the Entertainment Group division ofWarner Bros. Discovery Networks.[40][41]
Following the merger, Discovery Family was placed under the oversight of Cartoon Network's presidentMichael Ouweleen.[42] Despite Hasbro's2021 annual report reporting that its licensing agreement to produce and broadcast new television shows on the channel ended in 2021,[43] 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 itsnon-children's entertainment assets and instituted layoffs.[44] 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.[45]
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".[46]
The majority of Discovery Family's daytime programs are tied tomedia franchises owned by Hasbro itself, with newer series previously produced through its Hasbro Studios (later known asAllspark) andEntertainment One (which Hasbro acquired in 2019) subsidiaries. As the Hub Network, it previously airedgame shows adapted from Hasbro'sboard games, such asFamily Game Night,Scrabble Showdown,Pictureka!, andThe Game of Life.
One of the network's most noteworthy series wasMy Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, an animated series developed byLauren Faust for thethen-ongoing relaunch of Hasbro'sMy 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 significantcult followingamong male teenagers and adults.[47] Following its conclusion in October 2019, a spin-off series,My Little Pony: Pony Life, ran from November 2020 to May 2021.[48] A similar situation occurred withLittlest Pet Shop, which was succeeded byLittlest Pet Shop: A World of Our Own in 2018.
The Hatchery, a company co-founded by former presidentMargaret Loesch in 2003 with a majority stake acquired byAmerican Greetings, supplied the seriesDan Vs. andR. L. Stine's The Haunting Hour to the Hub Network.[49] American Greetings also suppliedStrawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures (part of the 2009 re-launch ofStrawberry Shortcake, a property they owned until 2015),The Twisted Whiskers Show,Maryoku Yummy, andCare Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot. Hasbro was named the master toy licensee ofCare Bears and Strawberry Shortcake in 2008.[50]
During its time as the Hub Network, the channel acquired series unrelated to Hasbro, The Hatchery, and American Greetings; these includedAnimal Mechanicals,The Aquabats! Super Show!,Cosmic Quantum Ray,Majors & Minors,Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch,Secret Millionaires Club, andSheZow. It also aired reruns of older acquired series likeFraggle Rock andLois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman; a collection ofWarner Bros. Animation series, such asBatman Beyond,Batman: The Animated Series,Superman: The Animated Series,Animaniacs, andTiny Toon Adventures; a few formerFox Kids shows likeGoosebumps andNinja Turtles: The Next Mutation; and syndicated sitcoms and dramas that, by the end of the network's run, includedBlossom (which returned briefly in 2016),Step by Step, andSister, Sister. A limited amount of Discovery Kids programming, such asAdventure Camp andFlight 29 Down, remained on The Hub's lineup upon its launch.
In 2019, Discovery Family acquired the cable rights to several series and specials from41 Entertainment, includingPac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures andSuper Monsters.[51] Since the formation of Warner Bros. Discovery, the channel has begun airing several Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network series, such asBaby Looney Tunes,Summer Camp Island,Steven Universe, and classicLooney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts.
Following the re-launch as Discovery Family in October 2014, the channel began carrying science and nature-related programs from Discovery Channel during primetime, such asAfrica,Extreme Engineering: Big Reveals,Flying Wild Alaska, andTime Warp.[36] Original programs have also been commissioned for this time slot, includingBake It Like Buddy,From Wags to Riches withBill Berloni,My Dog's Crazy Animal Friends,Reno, Set, Go!,Secrets of America's Favorite Places, and the ninth season ofCake Boss.
Final logo used from 2017 to 2022 | |
| Broadcast area | France Monaco |
|---|---|
| Programming | |
| Language | French |
| Picture format | 16:91080i (HDTV) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Discovery Networks EMEA |
| Sister channels | Discovery Channel Discovery Science Discovery Investigation |
| History | |
| Launched | 14 September 2017; 8 years ago (2017-09-14) |
| Closed | 29 March 2022; 3 years ago (2022-03-29) |
| Links | |
| Website | discoveryfrance.fr/discoveryfamily |
Discovery Family operates one feed nationally, and does not operate atimeshift feed for thewest coast.[17] A1080ihigh-definition simulcast of the network was introduced in May 2010, withAT&T U-verse as the first to carry the HD feed.[52]
Based on numbers fromNielsen,Variety ranked Discovery Family as the 132nd most-watched broadcast or cable network in the United States in 2022 based on total viewership.[53]
On March 31, 2016, the pan-EMEA version ofDiscovery World was re-launched as a regional version of Discovery Family.[54]
On September 14, 2017, a French version of Discovery Family was launched exclusively forSFR TV subscribers, as a part of a deal betweenAltice (the parent company of SFR) and Discovery, Inc.[55] Unlike its American counterpart, the channel did not include children's programming in its schedule. The channel shut down on 29 March 2022.[56]
Discovery Networks, U.S. will launch the Discovery Kids network, a new 24-hour digital channel, beginning October 22.
Discovery was the first non-fiction channel to embrace digital cable services. Home & Leisure, Science, Civilization, and Kids launched in October 1996.
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