In a recent article by Zacks.com, it was announced that Discovery Family was granted the rights to air My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks on October 17th. Of course, this is information we already knew so I find it kind of odd to be releasing this type of information.
Furthermore, no information in this article talks about Season 5 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic returning to Discovery Family, so we'll have to keep waiting to see when an announcement on this is made.
You can find the full press release after the break.
From Zacks.com:
Recently, Hasbro Studios – a wholly owned subsidiary of Hasbro Inc. – granted the exclusive television rights of its popular animated film – My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks – to the Discovery Family Channel, earlier known as The Hub Network. Discovery Family Channel will air the movie on Oct 17.
The Discovery Family Channel is currently a 60-40 joint venture between Discovery Communications, Inc. and the toy maker – Hasbro. The channel was initially launched in 2010 as a 50-50 joint venture between Discovery Communications and Hasbro. In September this year, Discovery Communications repositioned the channel to widen its programming range to family-oriented shows.
The channel, which was primarily aimed at the children's TV market, is looking to bring in more diverse viewership. The children’s TV market has become even more challenging with intense competition as well as increased restrictions on commercials, reducing ad revenues. Therefore, we believe that the exclusive rights of the popular feature film will help The Discovery Family Channel to increase its viewership.
For Hasbro, My Little Pony brand has historically been one of the top-grossing brands and seen strong results. This prompted Hasbro to ink strategic partnerships with companies, like Discovery, to promote merchandise associated with My Little Pony.
