The Hub: "Struggling to find viewers"

Here’s an interesting article. It’s primarily about SheZow, a show that premieres Saturday on the Hub but also how the Hub hasn’t exactly had the easiest time getting advertisers. It also has some information about the Hub in general, and the amount of Hasbro control:
 
Read it here
 
Some choice quotes/stats if you don’t want to click through:
 
~~Even with FiM and Transformers, the Hub’s viewership can be best described as “tiny”
 
-The Hub has 56K viewers in the intended demographic every day. Nickelodeon and CN have 934K
 
~~ “They do not tell us how to run the business,” Loesch said. “They of course share with me which of the properties they think would tie in best with their strategy, which is a win-win for us.”- Head of the Hub speaking of Hasbro
 
-The Hub had to fight with Hasbro to gain control of their own website
 

Cartoon Network should buy the rights to FiM and make season 4 TV-PG. But that’ll never happen.

@PrisonedMuffin  
I don’t know why people want a higher rated FiM, what good would THAT do?

@Background Pony
 
Our shipping fantasies made true?

@AaronMk  
NO, there’s enough lesbian shit in the fandom that the show doesn’t need to cater to.

@Background Pony
 
Yea, it’d be more a curse than a blessing.

@Background Pony  
Not because of shipping. Because I wouldn’t mind I darker, more violent and action-packed FiM with more adult humor that touches on touchy subjects occasionally.

This article did kind of give insight to why the Hub’s programming is such a melange of things. No one wants to advertise on it because the primary advertisers, toy companies, don’t want to compete with Hasbro. Even Hasbro can’t advertise their toys when it would be most beneficial to them because of FCC regulations. So they pretty much just buy syndication rights for whatever is cheapest and turn themselves into a Nick At Night clone in an attempt to keep the network afloat.

@Background Pony
 
The rating system is basically a complete joke on our side of the coin and little more than a game on the industry/bureaucrat’s side; a TV-Y rating really does little more than tie the writers/animator’s hands behind their backs with red tape. Remember how hard it was just push the use of the term “egghead” in the show? One of the advantages the comic has over the cartoon is that it doesn’t have such stringent “boundaries” (I use quotes because, like I said, it’s little more than a bureaucratic game). The show can only benefit from a higher rating (no really, I think the little kiddies that’re supposedly being protected will actually be better off for it).

It sounds like - for the network - it’ll be best to sever ties with Hasbro and go it alone, thereby attracting advertisers and increasing revenue.
 
And also getting their brand out.

@archestereo  
Well, that’s not gonna happen. I mean, this is friggin My Little Pony! It’s meant for little girls, so of course that ain’t happening.

@AaronMk  
I would throw my computer out the window if they made any F/F involving the Mane 6 canon. I wouldn’t care much if it was some other pony though.
 
Anyway, a TV-Y7 rating would be incredibly beneficial to the show.

@AaronMk  
They’re half-owned by Hasbro and the only shows they actually are making money on are Hasbro properties. They need Hasbro since they’re a part of Hasbro The Hub is demanding more independence in their affairs, and Hasbro is slowly giving it to them. They’re starting to realize that it may not be as profitable as they had hoped, already it is way off track for profitability.
 
 
@archestereo  
The Crystal Empire episodes almost got completely canned because of the mention of slavery. It apparently took some skillful wrangling to get that one past.

@Itsthinking  
Less viewership means more chance of Hasbro considering canning the show, I’d like to think they aren’t stupid enough to do that, but I’m not entirely convinced that they wouldn’t.

@Rainbow Dash  
Considering the last half year of constant sh*tstorms one after another I don’t know anymore.

@Rainbow Dash  
FiM is like the one thing that actually brings in viewers on the network…

@Itsthinking  
Indeed, but the problem lies in the fact that it’s costly to create new episodes. If the HUB isn’t getting enough viewers, then Hasbro might see creating further episodes as a bad investment. It’s like a commercial, they want as many people as possible to see it, but right now, nobody is seeing it, so why continue paying to keep it running?
 
Not exactly the most optimistic train of thought, but one to consider anyway.
 
EDIT - I guess you can also consider the fact that the number of viewers spikes dramatically when a new episode premiers for the first time, but I don’t know if that’s enough.

@Rainbow Dash  
Hopefully they’ll just make a deal to air it on nickelodeon or another popular channel :[  
That’s actually not a bad idea, a merger in that case would be beneficial cause even though nick is garbage for the most part it would cause the popularity of the show to explode and thus sell the toys like crazy.

@Rainbow Dash  
The Hub in general has been a huge money sink for Hasbro and it’s definitely not turning out the way they planned it would. Who knows how it’s going to turn out. They’re being held back by Hasbro ownership, FCC regulations and consumer response to ads. Those three things make monetizing it incredibly difficult, especially when toy sales are down in general and previous expensive ventures were critical and financial failures.

Now taking bets on most probable outcome. Now taking bets.

Perhaps this was why it was taking longer for recent seasons to air and that season 3 only had 13 episodes.

@Itsthinking  
There were slavery in kids’ shows I grew up with.

@Itsthinking
 
>The Crystal Empire episodes almost got completely canned because of the mention of slavery. It apparently took some skillful wrangling to get that one past.
 
Goddammit,is it really that difficult for Hasbro to grasp that some episodes need conflict to create at least an acceptable plot?

@Amber  
They could increase the show’s the ratings… but I doubt that’s gonna happen.

Here’s a side thought. Even if the hub closes down since the show has enough episodes to reach syndication and thus can be aired on other channels. If they were to do that then the popularity would boom and we would probably see it come back.
 
If anything what I wish is for them to air past seasons on other channels to boost popularity. I’m not saying for them to air the new episodes at the same time on different channels, but rather they should at least when season 4 rolls around have a deal with other channels to air seasons 1 to 3. That way people will still watch the hub for new episodes and people without the hub get to watch past seasons.