Disney fires another shot at Hasbro and Nickelodeon in the Media Wars

When Hasbro and the Discovery Channel decided to team up together to create the Hub Television Network for kids and families, they poked a stick in Disney's eye. Disney quickly responded by taking over Marvel (and thus preventing Hub from carrying the largely boy based programming) and now is expanding its television empire.

On May 26, 2010, the Hollywood Insider in an article entitled, "SOAPnet will go dark to make way for Disney Junior" reported that the Walt Disney Company was closing its cable channel SOAPnet and replacing it with Disney Children, a 24 hour television channel aimed at preschoolers (which raises the intriguing question of how many preschool children will actually be up at 2:00 AM to take advantage of the 24 hour service.)

The question that comes to mind is what impact will Disney's move have on the new Hub Channel? I think the answer is some but not a lot. Here is why; Hasbro is going into the media business because it knows it's a powerful way to build its brands. The Discovery Network, however, is in it to build viewership. They are greatly experienced at television with their multiple (and successful) channels (TLC, Animal Planet, Science Channel, Military Channel and Discovery Health). 

Hasbro, therefore, has a great partner who surely expected Disney to respond with a move and knows how to handle itself. So, I anticipate Disney blunting some of Hub's impact but still being a success for Discovery and a real asset to Hasbro as it reinvents itself as a company that synergizes its brand equity over multiple platforms.

The bigger question is all of this good, bad or immaterial to the broader toy industry. I will tackle that in my next posting.

Read full article at Entertainment Weekly