HIT Entertainment (styled "HiT" and or known as HIT Entertainment Limited through copyright and trademark) was a British-American entertainment company that produced children's entertainment. The company distributed content for the home entertainment market and licensed its characters for use in books and other consumer products.[7]
Founded as the as the international distribution arm of Jim Henson Productions,[8] originally called Henson International Television in 1982 by Jim Henson and then its then CEO Peter Orton,[9] the company was renamed and rebranded to HIT Entertainment in 1989, with the shift focus on children's programming.
During its existence, the company was recognized as one of the world's leading children’s entertainment companies.[10] In 2012, the company was acquired by Mattel.[11] Since the studios absorption into the company, Mattel has produced new programming, material and products based on some of the properties that HIT Entertainment owned, with their logo still occasionally appearing in merchandise and the company now being a brand.
History
Barney
Distribution (Early 1990s)
In September 1993, HIT Entertainment was named the international distributor of Barney & Friends.[12] HIT would distribute Barney & Friends internationally from 1993 to 1996.[13] Because of the change in the preschool market, thanks to Barney & Friends, it encouraged HIT to begin production of its own stable of characters.[8] Instead of simply distributing characters and their series, HIT now sought to become involved in their development--not only producing television programs, videos, and films, but also in controlling lucrative licensing activities. In order to fund this transition, the company went public, listing its shares on London's AIM market in 1996. The listing gave the company a market capitalization of just £18 million, but enabled it to launch its new HIT Video division, which began production of video programming targeting the company's core preschool audience.[8] This would eventually lead to the creation of series such as Bob the Builder, Kipper, and Angelina Ballerina.
Acquisition (2001)
In order to expand the international presence of its characters, such as Bob the Builder, Kipper, and Angelina Ballerina, the company announced in February 2001 that it would acquire Lyrick Coporation for $275 million.[14] Lyrick held the rights to Barney, which was a big property in North America. In turn the deal gave 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 something that Lyrick needed.[15] Eventual Chief Executive of HIT, Rob Lawes, was the driving force of the acquisition.[16] The Lyrick acquisition put HIT Entertainment on the world map and the company was now interested in pursuing new acquisitions.
Apax Partners (2005-2011)
HIT characters, including Barney, Angelina Ballerina and Bob the Builder, appearing at the Sprout Launch Party in 2005, among other guests.
Due to the disappointing financial results of the company within the last few months, it led to the decision of HIT agreeing to be purchased from Apax Partners Worldwide, which was a private equity buyout firm,[17] for £489.4 million ($934 million)[18] on March 22, 2005. In the same year, HIT partnered with PBS, Comcast and Sesame Workshop to launch Sprout, a 24-hour preschool channel. The first initial announcement of the channel was overshadowed the previous year, after Rob Lawes was fired from his chief executive position at HIT Entertainment.[19] In April 2011, Apax put HiT up for sale, with the option to sell the company in two parts: Thomas & Friends franchise and the other HIT characters with its Sprout stake, with either parts or separately. Several bidders came forward, including The Walt Disney Company, Viacom (now known as Paramount Global), Mattel, Hasbro, Classic Media (now known as DreamWorks Classics), Chorion and Saban Brands.[20] Los Angeles media billionaire Haim Saban and former Walt Disney Co. chief executive Officer Michael Eisner were also among those considering a bid for HIT Entertainment. Eisner was working with buyout firm Madison Dearborn Partner LLC on his bid.[21]
Mattel acquisition (2011)
Apax Partners agreed to sell HIT Entertainment to Mattel, Inc on October 24, 2011 for $680 million.[22][23] Its share of Sprout was not included in the deal.[24] The sale/merger was completed on February 1, 2012,[11] and HIT Entertainment became a wholly owned subsidiary of Mattel, managed under its Fisher-Price unit.[25][26] Due to the success of the Thomas brand, which accounted for 80% of HIT’s revenues, there was talks of Mattel only wanting to purchase that franchise rather than the entire HIT library.[27] Mattel had already worked alongside Hit Entertainment and handled marketing for Thomas & Friends toys.[28] On July 3, 2012, It was reported that Mattel considered selling and seeked a buyer for the assets of Barney (alongside Angelina Ballerina).[29] They eventually decided to keep those brands. On October 6, 2015, HIT Entertainment announced a long-term partnership with 9 Story Media Group to relaunch Barney & Friends and Angelina Ballerina, with revivals announced for 2017.[30] None of the revivals came into fruition however.
On March 31, 2016, it was announced that Mattel would bring three of their internal content production units: Mattel Playground Productions, HIT Entertainment and the American Girl to form their new division called Mattel Creations, which was later renamed to Mattel Television.[31][32] While no longer operating as a company, HIT Entertainment continues to be used as a brand/label on various products based on IPs that HIT once solely owned.
Distribution
HIT Entertainment's Barney elevator doorway.
Barney
Home media
The first Barney Home Video to be produced and distributed by HIT Entertainment was Let's Go To The Zoo in 2001. In 2006, HIT closed its DVD sales and distribution arm in the US and contracted with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment for DVD distribution. Soon, the distribution deal ended and transferred to Lionsgate Home Entertainment who distributed HIT's videos from May 2008-2014.[33][34] Announced in May 2014, HIT announced a DVD distribution deal with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, in which Universal started distributing their catalogue for Blu-ray, DVD, Electronic Sell-Through and VOD platforms in the United States and Canada.[35] Playground Fun! would be the final new video distributed by HIT Entertainment in 2017.
See also: HIT Favorites (US) / HIT Favourites (UK)
Publishing
Due to the merger in 2001, HIT shut down Lyrick Publishing, which published books based on Barney, which impacted eighty employees. HIT signed a deal with Scholastic, which agreed to put up a seven-figure guarantee to produce and distribute all future publications derived from characters owned by Lyrick and HIT.[36]
See: HIT Entertainment releases
Notable Leadership
- Jocelyn Stevenson - Chief Creative Officer (2001-2006)
- Pam Westman - SVP, Canada & Latin America (2001-2008) / EVP, The Americas (Oct. 2008-Sept. 2012)
- Joyce D. Slocum - General Counsel & EVP, Global Legal & Business Affairs (2001-2008)
- Karen Barnes - Executive Vice President, Production & Development (Feb. 2005-Oct. 2012)[37]
- Lenora Hume - Executive Vice President, Production & Programming (2006-2010)
- Sloan Coleman - Senior Vice President, Stage tours/live events
- Debbie Ries - Senior vice president, sales for HIT Entertainment
Gallery
Logos
-0.webp "HiT Entertainment Plc Logo (2000)-0.webp (26 KB)"){kind=logo}
.png "HiT Entertainment (2008).png (153 KB)")
Variants
.png "HiT Entertainment (Block).png (116 KB)")
See Also
References
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