HiT Entertainment was a British-American entertainment distribution company originally founded by Jim Henson in London, England in 1982 as Henson International Television, with the intention to act as a distribution point for Henson's programs outside of North America after splitting off from ITC Entertainment following that company's troubles. However, as the result of Disney's failed attempt to buy Henson's assets in 1989, the company was bought out on October 1st of that year by co-founder Peter Orton, where it became independent from Henson's operations. In 1993, HiT launched its natural history division called HiT Wildlife (It was launched as Wild Media). Nowadays HiT Entertainment is mostly a producer and distributor of young children's programming.
Has their own TV network called JimJam, which is available on several Pay TV providers in parts of Europe, Far East Asia, and the Pacific. They used to have a feed of the network in South-East Asia, but it shut down in 2012.
In 2011, Mattel bought the company for US$680 million
. In 2016, HiT was merged with Mattel's Playground Productions division to form Mattel Creations, which itself was rebranded as Mattel Television in 2019.
Programs that HiT Entertainment produced and distributed:
- Anthony Ant (with Funbag Animation and YTV)
- Angelina Ballerina (With Grand Slamm Childrens Films)
- Archibald the Koala
- Barney & Friends
- Bob the Builder (a co-production with HOT Animation)
- Brambly Hedge (with Cosgrove Hall (Season 1) and HOT Animation (Season 2))
- Captain Zed and the Zee Zone (with DiC Entertainment)
- Dennis the Menace - 1996-1998 series
- Fifi and the Flowertots - US distribution (Produced with Chapman Entertainment)
- Fireman Sam - Season 5 onwards
- Fly Tales - distribution only
- The Jim Henson Company: (would hold distribution rights to their "family showcase" programs between 2004-2009. Several of the shows listed ultimately didn't receive DVD releases from them)
- The Animal Show with Stinky & Jake
- Animal Jam
- City Kids
- The Christmas Toy
- The Secret Life of Toys
- Construction Site
- Dog City
- Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas note
- Fraggle Rock
- Fraggle Rock: The Animated Series
- Down at Fraggle Rock: Behind the Scenes
- Jim Henson's Mother Goose Stories
- Mopatop's Shop
- Song of the Cloud Forest
- Telling Stories with Tommy dePaola
- The Ghost of Faffner Hall
- The Hoobs
- The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss
- Kipper (With Grand Slamm Childrens Films)
- Lavender Castle - TV distribution only
- Mike the Knight (with Nelvana)
- Oswald - (with Nickelodeon, non-USA)
- Percy the Park Keeper (with Grand Slamm Childrens Films
- Pingu (Seasons 5-6, produced with HOT Animation)
- Rainbow Magic
- Roary the Racing Car - US distribution (Produced with Chapman Entertainment)
- Rubbadubbers (with HOT Animation)
- Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (with Soyuzmultfilm, S4C, BBC Wales, HBO and Fujisankei; the VHS tapes of each tale are often distributed by HBO for Random House Home Video)
- Sheeep
- The Three Friends... and Jerry - distribution only
- Thomas & Friends
- Untalkative Bunny
- Where's Wally? (1991) (with DiC Entertainment)
- The Wiggles - Home Video distribution (1999-2007 in US, 2005-2012 in UK)
- Wishbone - distribution only (acquired from Lyrick Studios)
- Wildlife
- Wobbly Land - Distribution only
