Following yesterday’s unveiling of The Hub, the newly named US kidnet operated by the Discovery Communications-Hasbro JV set to launch this fall, CEO Margaret Loesch dished more channel details, including plans to co-produce and acquire more new series.

Loesch told KidScreen from her L.A.-based office yesterday that The Hub’s new head of acquisitions and programming Ted Biaselli will be at KidScreen Summit next month in New York looking for shows to fill out not only its launch schedule, but also to feed into its slate for years two and three. At the top of Biaselli’s list is family-oriented comedies in either live-action or animated formats. Additionally, Loesch said, her team already has roughly two-dozen original show concepts in development, and she’s also considering dusting off some older Discovery Kids shows and putting them back into production.

As for channel positioning, Loesch said The Hub plans to cater primarily to kids six to 12, with an emphasis on reaching the latter half of the six to nine bracket, which she says is a specific target age that isn’t being served by the other major kidcasters that either skew programming to serve younger kids or tweens. The Hub will reach roughly 60 million homes via what’s currently Discovery Kid’s feed and feature a range of programming from comedies, animation and live-action franchises to game shows that zero-in on fun and play.

The Hub is currently in pre-production on series based on Hasbro IPs – Transformers and My Little Pony – as will broadcast existing Discovery Kids series like Adventure Camp and Flight 29 Down. Its online counterpart, hubworld.com, will offer kids access to video clips, interactive games and community features to extend the kidnet’s content experience.

Look for the upcoming February/March 2010 issue of KidScreen for more information on The Hub’s acquisition model.