HIT Entertainment Digital Newsroom

HIT Entertainment Appoints Character Options As UK & Eire Master Toy Licensee For New Property 'Mike The Knight'

02/28/2011

New York, NY

HIT Entertainment, one of the world's leading independent children's entertainment producers and rights owners, has today announced the appointment of Character Options as the UK and Eire master toy licensee for its brand new property Mike the Knight which is set to premiere on CBeebies this autumn.

Under the long term agreement, Character Options obtains the rights to develop new products under the following categories: plastic (figurines and playsets) plush, novelty, role play and Games. The first line of products will be available in Autumn/Winter 2012.

This deal is the latest in a line of agreements between the two companies, with Character also holding the UK rights for HIT brands Bob the Builder and Fireman Sam.

Jon Owen, Senior Vice President HIT Brands – Global, said:

"Our involvement with Character has gone from strength to strength over the last 12 months and this latest deal marks an exciting new chapter in our relationship. Everyone at HIT is hugely excited about Mike the Knight, and with Character now on board we are confident that they will conjure up a spell-binding product range for this adventurous new series."

Jon Diver, Joint Managing Director of The Character Group plc, added:

"Mike the Knight is an excellent addition to the Character pre-school portfolio. The characters and scripts lend themselves for us to produce fun innovative products that will establish Mike the Knight as a major long term property."

Co-produced with Corus Entertainment's Nelvana Studios Mike the Knight is a new 52 x 12' CGI series set to transport viewers back in time to an age filled with castles, quests, and dragons. Mike is a 10-year old boy with a big future ahead of him. The son of the King and Queen Glendragon he is determined to follow in his father's footsteps to become a brave and noble knight. With the triumphant motto "Be a knight, do it right" the brave young charge is joined in his adventures by a host of mediaeval characters including his trusty steed Galahad, two eccentric dragons Squirt and Sparkie and his sister Evie a trainee wizard.

About HIT Entertainment
HIT Entertainment is one of the world's leading independent children's entertainment producers and rights-owners. HIT's portfolio includes properties, such as Barney™, Bob the Builder™, Thomas & Friends™, Pingu™, Fireman Sam™, Angelina Ballerina™ and Rainbow Magic™. HIT represents Chapman Entertainment's Fifi and the Flowertots™ and Roary the Racing Car™ in North America, as well as Wallace & Gromit™, Shaun the Sheep™, Timmy Time™ and Aardman Classics from Aardman Animations. HIT also acts as representative for The Wiggles® in the UK. Launched in 1989, HIT's lines of business span television and video production, content distribution, publishing, consumer products licensing and live events and has operations in the UK, US, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan. HIT is a part-owner of US-based preschool channel, Sprout®. For more information, visit www.hitentertainment.com.

About Character Group
Character Options is the trading subsidiary of The Character Group plc. The business was formed in 1991 and became a publicly listed stock on the London Stock Exchange in 1995 (Ticker code: AIM CCT). The Company designs, develops, licenses and distributes children's toys both in the UK and Eire and internationally. Currently, the Character Group is stated to be the fourth largest toy distributor in the UK behind only Mattel, Hasbro and Lego in terms of UK sales.

For more information: visit www.thecharacter.com email: info@charactergroup.plc.uk
or contact: Jerry Healy, Head of Marketing at Character Options on +44(0) 161 633 9800