Discovery Family
Discovery Family is an American pay television channel owned by Discovery, Inc. and Hasbro.
The network was first launched on October 7, 1996 as Discovery Kids Channel, a spin-off of Discovery Channel that featured science, nature and adventure-themed programs aimed towards pre-teens. In April 2009, Hasbro announced a joint venture with Discovery, Inc. to relaunch Discovery Kids as The Hub (later Hub Network) on October 10, 2010; Hasbro handled programming while Discovery handled distribution and advertising sales. The Hub was intended to be a general, youth-oriented network with a diverse lineup, primarily featuring programming adapted from Hasbro franchises (such as Transformers, its board games, My Little Pony, Pound Puppies, and Littlest Pet Shop) along with other family-oriented programs such as sitcom reruns and films.
On September 25, 2014, following reports earlier in the year that Hub Network president Margaret Loesch would step down by the end of the year, Discovery acquired 10% of Hasbro's stake in the network, and replaced Loesch with Henry Schleiff, who leads sister networks such as Destination America and Investigation Discovery. On October 13, 2014, Hub Network was re-branded as Discovery Family to which Hasbro remains a minority partner and programs the network's daytime lineup with children's programs carried over from Hub Network, while its prime-time lineup was replaced with reruns of non-fiction programs from Discovery Channel's library, including science and nature programs.
As of September 2018, approximately 55,238,000 American households (50.9% of households with television) receive Discovery Family.