Search results
Hit Entertainment Subscribe Bringing you the top trending news & gossip from Australia and around the world! 🎧📺🎬bit.ly/2qRwpAkRead: https://www.hit.com.au...
- HiT Entertainment Logo History
Thanks to paul jones for requesting HiT Entertainment and...
- HiT Entertainment Official
Welcome To The Official HiT Entertainment YouTube Channel!
- HiT Entertainment Logo History
Welcome To The Official HiT Entertainment YouTube Channel!
Thanks to paul jones for requesting HiT Entertainment and for requesting to premiere this! Sit back, relax, and enjoy this logo history.HiT Entertainment was...
- 7 min
- 1.3M
- JontyMaster
Dec 16, 2018 · HiT Entertainment PLC Logo (1997-2008) [Fullscreen] Taken from, Thomas & Friends: Pulling Together from 2004. Remastered in Movie Studio Platinum 13.0....more.
- 21 sec
- 230.6K
- QuinniferReuploads
- Overview
- History
- Films produced
HiT Entertainment Limited (doing business as Mattel Television) is an British-American entertainment company owned by Mattel and originally established in 1982 as Henson International Television. HiT owned globally successful brands including Thomas & Friends, Fireman Sam, Bob the Builder, Pingu, Barney & Friends, Angelina Ballerina, and many more.
In July 2002, HiT acquired Gullane Entertainment (formally The Britt Allcroft Company) for approx £144-million. The purchase gave HiT full ownership rights to popular brands like Thomas the Tank Engine and Captain Pugwash.
1982–1990: Beginning and early years
Peter Orton had met Jim Henson when he was at the Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop) handling distribution of Sesame Street. As a result, he became close friends with Henson and went to work with him in 1981. Together, they set up Henson International Television, which was the international distribution arm of Jim Henson Productions the following year, with Orton becaming the company's CEO. Jim Henson Productions started negotiations with The Walt Disney Company regarding a possible purchase of the company in the late 1980s. Because of these negotiations, the company head, Peter Orton and other employees at Henson International Television convinced Jim Henson to allow them to spin off the distribution arm as an independent distribution company. Henson agreed, and Orton led a management buyout of the Henson International Television division from Henson in 1989, forming a new company named HiT Communications PLC.
1990–1999: Becoming independent
HiT continued distributing programming by initially signing popular British series Postman Pat and the long-running Alvin and the Chipmunks series. The company then financed and distributed animated feature films based on the 64 Zoo Lane, Wind in the Willows and Peter Rabbit books. Helping to fund the company was an investment by British satellite and cable TV operator Flextech took a 23% share in HiT for about £600,000. The HiT Wildlife division was set up to produce nature and wildlife programming which provided the company with 35% of its revenue by the mid-1990s. HiT also handled international distribution for Barney & Friends, produced by Allen, Texas-based Lyrick Studios (historically and originally known as The Lyons Partnership, L.P.). With the success of Barney, HiT began to develop its own programming. In 1996, HiT was listed on the AIM to raise funding; it used the funding to launch HiT Video that produced direct-to-video programming in the UK. In New Year's Eve 1995, the company announced they had purchased the rights to The Story of Tracy Beaker and would produce a new television series featuring the character. A new character came to the company's attention in 1996, when advertising executive and would-be cartoonist Keith Chapman pitched his idea to HiT Entertainment. Chapman's character was a little builder named Bob the Builder. While a number of other producers had turned down the idea, HIT recognized its potential and bought the rights to developing the Bob the Builder character into a television series. With another offering in 1997, HiT increased its capitalization and move to the primary London Stock Exchange, whose funding HiT would use to develop some of its first original series, including Brambly Hedge, Percy the Park Keeper, Kipper, and The Story of Tracy Beaker, which became its first hit on ITV. In 1998, HIT formed its own animation production company, Hot Animation, and its Consumers Product Division. The BBC agreed to broadcast Bob the Builder. HiT signed a series of American broadcasting deals starting with Nickelodeon for Kipper and expanded to Starz/Encore for the Brambly Hedge and Percy the Park Keeper TV series, HBO Family for the Anthony Ant cartoon series, Playhouse Disney/Disney Channel for the Story of Tracy Beaker cartoon series, and Animal Planet for the Wylands Ocean World wildlife program. Kipper won the 1998 BAFTA award for Best Children's Animation. At the end of the year, HIT offered another group of shares. In 1999 HiT had 10 first-run TV series in the United States and started an American subsidiary. In February, 64 Zoo Lane and in April, Bob the Builder successfully debuted on the BBC, and in July the company made another public offering of stock. An American deal for Bob was signed in December with Nickelodeon to start airing in January 2001. Mattel signed a five-year licensing agreement for the development of the Angelina Ballerina TV series.
2000–2004: Bob the Builder to final independent years
HIT, which had long been suggesting that it intended to expand its character stable through acquisitions, HIT, which had long been suggesting that it intended to expand its character stable through acquisitions, nearly found a partner in early 2000, when the company held talks with Britt Allcroft, the British company that held the licenses to such popular characters as Thomas the Tank Engine, Captain Pugwash, and Sooty. The two sides were unable to agree on a price, however, and the merger fell through. Bob the Builder continued its success with the number one record in December that year. In order to expand the international presence of its characters, such as Kipper the Dog, Angelina Ballerina and Bob the Builder, the company announced on 9 February 2001 that it would acquire Lyrick Studios (historically and still known as the Lyons Partnership, L.P.), home and owner of Barney & Friends, for $275 million, which would in turn give HiT a marketing and distribution network that it used to introduce its properties to US audiences. Vice versa, the deal would help expand Barney's international presence, which was what Lyrick needed at the time. Chief Executive of HIT, Rob Lawes, was the driving force of the acquisition. The Lyrick acquisition encouraged HiT Entertainment to pursue new acquisitions. In May 2001, the first Bob the Builder production was released in the United States, while the company signed a deal with Sears to have "Bob Shops" in their retail stores. The Henson Company's owner EM.TV was in financial trouble over its purchase of 50% share in Formula One racing rights, and HiT joined a number of companies willing to purchase Henson. In October 2001, HiT's bid for Pingu BV was accepted. In April 2002, HIT Entertainment sold their wildlife division to the newly formed Parthenon Entertainment, which was owned by the former managing director of Hit Wildlife, Carlos "Carl" Hall, with its 30 hours of programming in production and its 300-hour library was transferred in the management buyout agreement. The board of Gullane Entertainment agreed that their company be purchased by HiT for £139million. The television shows owned by Gullane included Thomas & Friends, The Magic Adventures of Mumfie, and Fireman Sam (whose rights were bought from Bumper Films months before). On 22 August 2002, HIT Entertainment officially opened its Canadian office in Toronto. In March 2003, CCI Entertainment re-acquired its stake from HiT which was part of the purchase of Gullane and its library rights in Canada. HiT's next TV-show Rubbadubbers aired in September that year. CCI would in a decade's time be acquired and folded into 9 Story Media Group. On 1 April 2004, HiT and The Jim Henson Company agreed to a five-year global distribution and production deal which included distribution of 440 hours of JHC's remaining library, including Fraggle Rock, Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, The Hoobs and Jim Henson's Mother Goose Stories. In addition, the agreement also included the production of new properties, including Frances, in which both companies co-produced. Both companies co-owned the copyright to the series. While firing its chief executive Rob Lawes in October 2004, the company announced its launching of a 24-hour pre-school channel known asPBS Kids Sprout (now Universal Kids
Bob the Builder: A Christmas to Remember (2001)
Bob the Builder: The Knights of Fix-a-Lot (2003)
Bob the Builder: Snowed Under (2004)
Thomas & Friends: Calling All Engines! (2005)
Thomas & Friends: The Great Discovery (2008)
Thomas & Friends: Hero of the Rails (2009)
- 3 min
HIT Entertainment Limited (commonly known as HIT and stylized as HiT entertainment) was a British entertainment company and a label of Mattel Television. The company was founded in 1982 as Henson International Television, the international distribution arm of Henson Associates, but later went...
People also ask
Who owns Hit Entertainment Limited?
Is Hit Entertainment still owned by Mattel?
What is inEntertainment?
HYBE LABELS. Welcome to the official YouTube channel of HYBE, the content hub for BIGHIT MUSIC, BELIFT LAB, SOURCE MUSIC, PLEDIS Entertainment, KOZ ENTERTAINMENT, ADOR and more.
