The Hub’s day one bottom line: it’s an upgrade but eighth out of nine kids’ networks.
In persons age 2 and older, for the total day, The Hub averaged 135,000 viewers, which was a 650% improvement over Discovery Kids on Oct. 3, the network said. Discovery Communications teamed with Hasbro to create The Hub because Discovery considered Discovery Kids an underperforming asset.
The Hub’s best-performing show was new original series Family Game Night (7-8 p.m.), which averaged 267,000 total viewers. The Hub said the show — a live-action series in which families of four square off in Hasbro board games such as Cranium and Connect-4 (reviewed here) — outperformed Disney XD, NickToons and TeenNick among kids ages 2-11 and 6-11 in that time slot.
The Hub’s next-best show was a Garfield movie at 12-2 p.m. (225,000 viewers) and an episode of classic Jim Henson series Fraggle Rock (194,000), Nielsen figures show. Strawberry Shortcake’s Berry Bit Adventures, a new animated series based on the fruit-scented dolls, had 179,000. The numbers fall off from there.
Overall, The Hub trailed rival kids networks Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, Nick at Nite, Disney XD, Nicktoons and Nick Jr., according to Nielsen figures supplied by other media organizations. The Hub did outpace TeenNick (the former The N), which targets an older kids’ audience than Hub’s coveted 6-12 set.
Nick and Disney, the kids’ category leaders, averaged close to 2.2 million viewers in the total-day P2+ category on Sunday. Cartoon Network, at No. 4 behind Nick at Nite, averaged more than 1.2 million viewers.
Among kids’ networks that led The Hub, the closest in total-day P2+ viewing Sunday was Disney XD, with an average 230,000 to The Hub’s 135,000.
The Hub also ranked eighth in kids 2-11 and 6-11 in total day.
In a twist that supports its branding, The Hub released “co-viewing” statistics, saying it was the top network among children-targeted cable networks in the kids 2-11 and adults 18-49 categories. It said “36% of kids 2-11 watched with an adult 18-49, out-performing all children-targeted networks, including Nickelodeon (20%), Disney Channel (18%) and Cartoon Network (18%). In addition, 57% of A18-49 watched The Hub with a child aged 2-11, significantly beating all kid cablers, including Nickelodeon (35%), Disney Channel (40%) and Cartoon Network (28%).”
Comparable Nielsen figures for other kids’ networks were not immediately available. One other programmer said the raw numbers should be available more widely tomorrow.
In addition to Hasbro’s resources, which will translate to new originals based on characters such as Transformers and G. I Joe, The Hub starts out with a big subscriber base of 60 million homes.
