It’s no secret by now, The Hub Network simply did not pan out as planned. When launched, many Transformers fans had high hopes for the Hasbro owned TV network. Unfortunately as time went on, a short amount of time, reality set in that The Hub was simply not making money fast enough.
Adweek ran a story about the rise and fall of Hasbro’s TV attempt, specifically “what went wrong with The Hub, and what the toymaker hopes will go right” in the near future.
With Robots In Disguise premiering on Cartoon network on March 14, this may be a good time to revisit the background of The Hub’s downfall with interview pieces from Hasbro executives and other industry leaders, while also taking a look at Hasbro’s plan for the near future.
Steevy Maximus
Because the market, especially in terms of international influence and increases in Chinese wages, has changed in the past 10 years.
PredaconElder
Then why were toys for Cybertron or Animated so much better than the recent stuff?
Steevy Maximus
Because many of those core elements like Action figures are a shrinking market.
Action figures, Hot Wheels, even Barbie have all seen sharp market declines in the past 10 years. Just compare how much retail space action figures have now compared to just 10 years ago, and the general consensus is that it's smaller.
As an IP company, Hasbro could then leverage its products in other venues. So they wouldn't just be making money off of toys (many in shrinking market segments), but the movies, the distribution deals for the shows, the clothing, the vinyl figures, the buttons, the video games, the fast food promotions, the bed wares, etc.
Autovolt 127
Both actually.
Silvershot
I think you have this backwards – the toy divisions were lucky to get the money from the entertainment divisions. Profits from the movies are what allowed us to have the Generations toylines, amongst other things.
PredaconElder
This is the basically the weakness of the entire strategy of the new management team at Hasbro. They don't care about toys and rather wanted to transition Hasbro to being an IP provider. I have no problem with these ambitions until it turns out these people were taking money hand and mouth from the toy production divisions to pay for their plans, which have only blown up in their faces with the failure of the HUB and the diminishing quality of recent TF toys.
Why can't Hasbro concentrate just being a good toy company or do like Bandai, just back tv shows and companies that make shows to promote and shill its product. Why does it have to chose to be an IP engine over a toy company, its traditional business? I get that there is money there, but as lego/mattel/bandai demonstrate there is still money in toys too.
ThunderTalon
going to rant for those who complained about not having the hub network back then cause didnt want to pay extra for their kids to enjoy some of the programming maybe yall could of used a brain then and watch online where its free this way the younger kids can enjoy what aired on it. tp and the original tf was da bomb that i enjoyed watching
llamatron
hub fail? thats unpossible.
maybe next hasbro could invest in fax machines.
Cykill 1
The biggest problem was if you wanted to get this channel, you had to buy the higher priced cable bundles to get it. I think not many actually did this. And the majority of the shows on this channel were not new shows. I think everyone saw the writing on the wall when they announced this and what their programming was.
PrimulArchangel
Any time I turned on the HUB it was some old outdated tv show that no other channel on tv wanted or it was my little pony. I never watched it, it just didn't have any shows that attracted me to it. TF prime was the only show I wanted to watch but it always aired when I wasn't home so I just watched the series on you tube.
Alphard
Honestly, they should take what profits they've earned from AoE and use that to fund something like an online download service for their content or something. Maybe even Youtube. Netflix? Sure. It's just that the only reason I ever had the HUB was because my family's been TV junkies for years. I haven't really ever been one, I tend to stay online. It would be kind of neat if they made like… a Netflix channel-type thing? I know that sounds odd, but,
maybe they can do something with subscription services and stuff, while focusing the TV stuff they do on commercials. Also, they would probably save a lot by moving away from TV. There's a large percentage of their target market that's moving to online stuffs, and there's another percentage of people there already.
\\shrugs
vrba79
I think putting all their eggs in a Pony basket was a huge mistake.
Prime17
That was no where near a transgender show and just plain unfunny crossdressing. Besides, if regular can't portray a trans character without fucking up, a kids cartoon definitely can't
Like everyone else said, The Hub being a premium channel is what killed it. A lot of parents are already content with CN and Nick, and wouldn't pay extra money for a glorified toy commercial channel. A Netflix series and other stuff like that is definitely good options Hasbro should consider. The only show Hasbro has got going for itself now is MLP.
Taziir
I'm sorry but TV channels should not be a primary media focus in this age. Broadcast TV is a back-up content provider in our house. My daughter is more familiar with Stampy Longnose and other youtube streams than she is with broadcast shows. She loved the "how to train your dinobot" shorts, watches G1 with me on youtube and streams of "planets funniest…", but she watches almost no broadcast tv at all. Our story is not unqiue
Hasbro should focus content at the on-demand generation if it wants to target new audiences. Kids just don't watch TV the way we used to as children.
bellpeppers
What- try again? Or learn from their mistakes?
Autovolt 127
I agree, they need to put more effort in the toy commercials.
That'd be nice but I'm sure they won't any time soon.