HIT Entertainment Digital Newsroom

HIT Entertainment Expands Strategic Relationship With Aardman Animations

HIT North America Secures Deal For Consumer Products Rights To New Preschool Series Timmy Time™; HIT To Represent Aardman Animations in Themed Attractions Worldwide

06/10/2008

New York, NY

HIT Entertainment, one of the world's leading independent children's entertainment producers and rights-owners and Aardman Animations, the Oscar®-winning studio behind Wallace and Gromit™, Chicken Run™ and Shaun the Sheep™ TV series expand their relationship through two new exclusive deals. HIT is currently responsible for managing the Consumer Products rights of Wallace & Gromit™, Shaun the Sheep™ and Aardman Classics. In their new relationship, HIT will add responsibility for the consumer products roll-out of Aardman's new preschool show Timmy Time in North America. In addition, HIT has been selected to manage Aardman's Themed Attractions business worldwide for Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Timmy Time.

Timmy Time is Aardman Animations' first animated television series for preschoolers, and is slated to begin airing on Playhouse Disney in the US and Disney Channels around the world starting in early 2009. As representative for this property, HIT will look to launch Timmy consumer products in all key categories, including home entertainment, toys, games, publishing, apparel, accessories and more.

A first step in the worldwide management of Aardman's Attractions business, HIT will represent all Aardman properties and is set to announce its first attraction set to launch soon.

Peter Byrne, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Consumer Products, HIT Entertainment commented, "We are delighted to be expanding our relationship with Aardman. The much-anticipated Timmy Time perfectly complements our existing range of children's properties and adds significant value to our North American portfolio. We are also excited about taking these much loved brands into the Themed Attractions business by leveraging our expertise with operators around the world."

Sean Clarke, Head of Marketing and Licensing at Aardman said, "We are delighted to have extended our current portfolio with HIT, who are a world class leader in Licensing, with a proven track record in extending brands into themed attractions. We are very much looking forward to working with them on the rollout of our first preschool show Timmy Time next year, along with Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep."

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About HIT Entertainment

HIT Entertainment, owned by private equity investment group Apax Partners since June 2005, is one of the world’s leading independent children’s entertainment producers and rights-owners. HIT’s portfolio includes internationally renowned children’s properties, such as Bob the Builder™, Barney™, Thomas & Friends™, Pingu™, Rubbadubbers™ and Angelina Ballerina™. HIT acts as a representative for The Wiggles® in the UK, US and Canada and as worldwide representative for The Jim Henson Company’s library of classic family brands, including Fraggle Rock™. HIT also owns the Guinness World Records™ publishing and television property and Fireman Sam™, a joint venture with S4C. Launched in 1989, HIT’s lines of business span television and video production (including studios in the US and the UK), publishing, consumer products licensing and live events. With a catalog of more than 1,000 hours of young children’s programming, HIT sells its shows to more than 240 countries worldwide, in more than 40 different languages and has operations in the UK, US, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan. In 2005, the Company joined Comcast Corporation, PBS and Sesame Workshop to launch PBS KIDS Sprout℠, a 24-hour digital cable channel and VOD service for preschoolers. For more information, visit www.hitentertainment.com.

About Aardman
Aardman, based in Bristol (UK), co-founded and run by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, is a world leader in animation. It produces feature films, television series and television commercials for both the domestic and international market. The studio has won over 400 international awards including 4 Oscars®.

Aardman's multi-award winning productions are novel, entertaining, brilliantly characterised and full of charm that reflects the unique talent, energy and personal commitment of the very special people who make up the Aardman team. The studio's work is often imitated and yet the company continues to lead the field producing a rare brand of visually stunning and amusing independent and commercials productions.