Stan Hubbard's Big Premiere

As Stanley S. Hubbard, CEO and chair of Hubbard Broadcasting, slowly steps down from the leadership of the Twin Cities media company that he and his father built, most of his five offspring have earned top slots at the family firm. Hubbard’s second oldest, Stanley “Stan” E. Hubbard, is more than a new-generation executive—he is radically enlarging the company’s focus.

Stan Hubbard has spent the past seven years carving out a niche for himself and the cable-satellite division of St. Paul–based Hubbard Broadcasting, Hubbard Media Group, which he oversees. In September, his team launched ReelzChannel, a cable-satellite network that’s all about movies but doesn’t air a single film. It became available on November 30 in the Twin Cities market as part of Comcast’s “basic” digital-cable and satellite package. Since then, DirecTV and Dish have also added ReelzChannel to their offerings.

"We had seen enough new networks come along. Their distribution goes so slow that they bleed to death," Stan Hubbard says. "We did not want to get caught in that quagmire."

In August, Hubbard Media Group had announced its purchase of a controlling interest in Ovation, a 10-year-old digital-cable channel dedicated to arts programming. Ovation had plugged along since its inception, but was never able to reach the higher octaves. Hubbard and Ovation’s other new investors, which include movie producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein (Pulp Fiction, The English Patient, the Lord of the Rings trilogy), face numerous challenges in re-tooling the network and growing Ovation’s current subscription base of 5.3 million. (Hubbard Media Group also owns Florida-based F&F Productions, which leases high-definition and digital mobile production units for sports, entertainment, and corporate productions. CBS Sports and evangelist Billy Graham are two of F&F’s many notable customers.)

Reaching a national audience with programming that they’ve both produced and own is a first for the Hubbards. And they don’t have to have the subscription numbers of an HBO or ESPN to succeed in their channels’ niches. Stan Hubbard’s father believes that the Media Group might one day outearn Hubbard Broadcasting’s TV and radio operations, which include the KSTP family locally, as well as stations in New York state, New Mexico, and elsewhere in Minnesota. “We can’t sit still, as we haven’t in the past,” the elder Hubbard says. “We have to build a company.”