According to reports from Deadline.com and the Hollywood Reporter, Discovery Communications (the other half of The Hub) has ammended their agreement with Hasbro Inc. regarding the fees for airing animated programs. The ammendment is based around a “trigger event”, which could lead to a writedown of the channel’s overall worth. Discovery Communications submitted a $500 million dollar debt filing to the SEC Monday morning.
The Hub is currently averaging around 23,000 viewers, down from 24,000 a mere month ago. These ratings pale in comparison to the other children’s network giants Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. It is important to note that no new network has ever shot up the charts and they all had growing pains in the beginning. The fear is that Discovery Communications and Hasbro are trying to do so in a failing economy and, for most United States customers, to even watch The Hub you have to pay a premium cable package which raises your cable rates upwards of $100 a month, which for most people, isn’t worth it when you can just watch it online the next day thanks to the power of the Internet.
It is speculated that with the $500 million dollar debt filing, Discovery Communications will begin repurchasing its own stock while under the new ammended agreement, Hasbro will foot more of the bill to air their own programs such as My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic and Transformers Prime.
What does this all mean exactly? In short, by Q3 (Third Quarter in Business Lingo) it may come to be that The Hub is not worth what everyone thought it was in a financial sense. Depending on what that overall amount is, it could cause one or both partners to pull out of the agreement, and The Hub will fade away in to the midsts of obscurity. That is worst-case-scenario however, but it’s important to note that it is a viable possibility.
What can you do? Figure out a way to get The Hub with your cable package. Convince people you know with children how great The Hub is with their family-oriented programming. Instead of watching CSI while the kids play video games, gather the family around to watch your favorite family programs from the 1980’s and 1990’s. And, of course, watch Transformers Prime!
We’ll keep you updated. A special thanks to The Live Action Transformers Movie Blog for the initial heads up on this story.
DESTRO says
The Hub in Trouble?
And Now For Some Bad News - The Hub in Trouble? - GI Joe News
Echo7Solo says
well this bothers me. Truth is my 7 year old girl loves the hub. She watches it more than any other channel. Family game night is one of her favorite shows. If she had a choice of what channel to loose it would be nic over the hub. That's just fact.
sharky says
Hmmm, maybe I should start watching it, but it's not in HD from my cable provider.
captain N says
It wood help if when there's a new g.i.joer ep that they air an add for it. They don't air add's for new ep's anymore. & They need to stop airing the old g.i.joe at 5AM & air it in the afternoon.
I think that wood help some.
sbartek1974 says
This might be a dumb question, but, why can't Hasbro put GI Joe: Renegades and their other cartoons on Nick? Or Cartoon Network? Would it cost more money?
Beckley says
Hubble Hubble's in trouble, we need help like on the double!
Stnick8541 says
It sure seems to me like the answer to the problem with the HUB's low ratings is simple. Make it more available. The Dish Network package I have does not carry the HUB but carries every other major cartoon network. I would love to watch it but you first need to make it available.
TheRealDubya says
So Hasbro will lose the dedicated toy advertisement channel? As a parent, I think they fact they even have in the first place stinks.
sharky says
speedocub says
With Renegades going away for who knows how long or permanently...it matters little at this point.
Keep reading: The Hub in Trouble? - Page 2
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