Hub Network (Eris)

The physical channel slot that was later occupied by Hub Network in Hopeland was occupied by Discovery Kids. It was set up by Discovery Communications in 1996 as part of its digital extension of networks, as an educational channel targeting children.

The Discovery Kids brand extended to OTA television in 2001 when it had two deals with the commercial network UBS and the government network HPT. Both blocks started in February 2002, but failed miserably. This is because, even though UBS had the "two hours of educational content a week" benchmark (one on Saturday and one on Sunday), it was considered "insufficient" for such a network. When the law was repealed, a significant part of its programming was shown on HPT until 2004 at latest.

Discovery Kids extended to Lasmeticia and Sudoland, where it became more successful and followed its own path, becoming more of a pre-school channel and abandoning most of its initial pretensions. One of DK Hopeland's original series, Flight 39 Down (filmed in Rhetundo), was sold to Boomerang in these countries instead. There was also a Britannian feed that timeshared with Discovery Wings (now Discovery Turbo). It lasted until 2007 when it was replaced by a 24/7 Discovery Turbo. An on-demand service existed there, but wasn't updated since the linear channel's shutdown. In Flarland it existed between 2002 and 2007, where it shut down due to lack of interest.

As Discovery was getting more and more aware that they were no longer about serious documentaries (the main channel had to resort to "action" realities instead to boost ratings), they decided to set a joint-venture with the toy manufacturer Hasbro, on April 30, 2009. Under the arrangement, Discovery would be in charge of handling advertising sales and distribution while Hasbro would be involved in acquiring and producing programming.

While the network planned to maintain educational series (including those carried over from Discovery Kids), plans called for new original programs based on Hasbro-owned franchises such as G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, Transformers and game shows adapted from its board game brands. Discovery Communications was looking for a business partner to draw the improved types of advertisers on the channel.

In July 2009, the then-unnamed joint venture appointed veteran television executive Margaret Loesch as its chief executive officer. Between 1984 and 1990, Loesch have served as the president and CEO of Marvel Productions, which co-produced Hasbro's animated media tie-ins in mid-1980s (including G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero [1985], My Little Pony 'n Friends [1986] and The Transformers [1984]). Also included were plans to launch the channel in the other Hopelandian commonwealths (Higashimori and Rhetundo) with dedicated local feeds.