Sources confirmed reports that Discovery Communications and toy maker Hasbro are modifying their four-year partnership in The Hub kids’ channel, with Discovery taking a controlling interest in the network and renaming the channel Discovery Family to include programming for parents as well as kids.

News that Discovery and Hasbro were ending their partnership was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Discovery launched the Hub in 2010. The Hub, which linked programming from Discovery Kids channel like Adventure Camp and Flight 29 Down with Hasbro properties like Transformers and My Little Pony, was supposed to be the perfect marriage between commerce and entertainment. But the network, which competed against kids’ programming juggernauts Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel, never was able to carve out a proper niche. And it came under fire early on because of its close association with a toymaker and for what some critics called violent programming.

A spokeswoman for the Hub declined to comment.

Signs that the channel was under pressure surfaced in June, when Hub president Margaret Loesch, who had steered the network form its inception, said she would step down by the end of the year, and no replacement was named. Sources confirmed the Journal report that Discovery group president Henry Schleiff, who already oversees Investigation Discovery, Destination America, American Heroes Channel and Discovery Fit & Health, will add oversight of Discovery Family. According to those same sources, Hasbro will still own a piece of the network and will contribute programming to the channel in the mornings. The evenings will be filled at least initially with science and nature programming from other Discovery Networks.

Discovery has made a business out of repurposing channels and with 70 million homes, The Hub is what Discovery CEO David Zaslav has called “beachfront real estate.”  The programmer has had success in the past converting Discovery Health into the Oprah Winfrey Network,Planet Green into Destination America and The Military Channel into American Heroes Channel.

With the general market upfront unfolding more slowly than in years past, it took kids market leader Nickelodeon somewhat longer than usual to wrap its upfront business.

But Jim Perry, head of sales for the Nickelodeon Group, said it was worth the wait.

"We’re very pleased with volume and pricing,” Perry said during an interview Wednesday afternoon,after Nickelodeon completed its upfront sales process. He pegged Nickelodeon’s gains in the single digits overall, in a marketplace he estimated was down in the mid-single digits. 

Perry said that with ratings improvement on the Nickelodeon mothership -- after rare slippage a couple of years back -- and Nielsen amelioration with Nick Junior and Nick Toons, the kids programmer brought more GRPs  to the marketplace negotiating table  – a position that also benefited from Cartoon Network migrating an hour to Adult Swim. As such, Nick grew its market share.

Although Nickelodeon officials would not address specifics, the kids marketplace has registered business in the $700 million to $800 million range in recent years.

Perry pointed to growth across a number of key categories, with clients targeting the kids themselves, as well as packages that emphasized Nick’s strong co-viewing – “a key driver”  -- with parents and/or caregivers in the mix.

He said that studios were very aggressive, securing schedules ahead of their key theatrical releases, while toy companies bought into the “hard” weeks ahead of the Christmas and Easter seasons.

Consumer packaged goods companies will have a big presence on Nick and its spinoffs during the season ahead, and that “insurance was a big success.”

Conversely, food was one category where Nick saw some “pull back,” but he anticipates more action in the scatter market.

Underlining Nick’s leadership position in the marketplace, the programmer typically writes business accounting for upward of 70% of its linear inventory.

Perry said the company was also registered advances on the digital side through a recently launched Nick.com, its digital app now counting some 9 million users and commitments to launching more original content in these venues.

Although the additional platforms, by nature, tend to extend the negotiation process, as clients are brought up to speed about current offerings and future fare,  Perry said those conversations proved worthwhile as Nick increased its take in the digital space as well.