HIT Entertainment Digital Newsroom

HIT Entertainment Announces New Directors For U.S. Consumer Products Division

03/16/2006

New York, NY

HIT Entertainment, a leading provider of quality preschool entertainment, today announced the appointment of two directors for its US Consumer Products division. Jennifer Zivic joins the Company as Director, Soft Lines and Veronica Hart as Director, Hard Lines. Both will be based in the company's New York Office and will report to Rick Glankler, Vice President, Licensing.

In her new role as Director, Soft Lines, Zivic will be responsible for managing and growing HIT's soft lines business, including the apparel, sleepwear, footwear, accessories, stationery and domestics categories, across all brands within the HIT portfolio. She joins the Company with over ten years of product management experience. Before joining HIT, Zivic was Marketing Consultant at McGraw-Hill Publishing. Prior to that, she served as Director of Marketing and Product Development at Taratoy Corporation in the Kid's Stationery Division. She also spent seven years with Mattel Toys in various roles, where she managed the Sesame Street and Barbie businesses.

As Director, Hard Lines, Hart will be responsible for building HIT's hard lines business, including the toys, games, gift/novelty, party goods, interactive/electronics and mobile categories, across all brands within the HIT portfolio. Most recently Hart served as Director, Licensing, Global Consumer Products at Sesame Workshop, where she was responsible for global licensing of Sesame Street, including the management of key toy partners. Prior to that, she was Director, Domestic Licensing at The Jim Henson Company, where she worked across multiple brands, including The Muppets, Fraggle Rock and Bear in the Big Blue House.

"Both Jennifer and Veronica join the Company with extensive licensing and product management experience in the children's industry and proven track records of success," said Jamie Cygielman, Senior Vice President, Consumer Products. "We are excited to have their expertise complement the HIT team."

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.