Reflecting the continued growth of its home entertainment business, Lionsgate has acquired the home entertainment distribution rights to family entertainment leader HIT Entertainment's portfolio of children's programming in the US and Canada.
The announcement was made today by Lionsgate President and Co-Chief Operating Officer Steve Beeks and HIT Entertainment Chief Financial Officer Jim Weight.
Under the terms of the agreement, Lionsgate obtains the exclusive marketing, sales and distribution rights to HIT's iconic franchises including THOMAS & FRIENDS, BOB THE BUILDER(TM), BARNEY, ANGELINA BALLERINA and FIREMAN SAM.
It also includes newly acquired brands such as FIFI & THE FLOWERTOTS and ROARY THE RACING CAR(TM) from Chapman Entertainment, Aardman Animations' award-winning WALLACE & GROMIT (four half hour episodes), and SHAUN THE SHEEP, as well as The Jim Henson Company's FRAGGLE ROCK and additional family titles from the Henson library.
Lionsgate is scheduled to begin distributing HIT's full slate of home entertainment releases in May 2008.
THOMAS AND THE GREAT DISCOVERY, the brand's first feature length direct to DVD movie since 2005, featuring Pierce Brosnan as the narrator, will be one of the first titles released in September 2008.
Lionsgate and HIT noted that, anticipating the emerging digital marketplace, the agreement encompasses electronic sell-through to the HIT owned titles as well as DVD distribution rights.
Lionsgate currently has non- theatrical family home entertainment market share of approximately 9 percent and, with the new partnership with HIT, this non-theatrical family home entertainment market share is expected to grow to approximately 15 percent.
The addition of the HIT Entertainment portfolio continues Lionsgate's tremendous growth momentum as a distributor of many of the most prominent family brands in the marketplace.
Prior to this deal, Lionsgate was the fourth largest distributor of children's non-theatrical titles and the second largest for children's non-theatrical features.
In the children's television market, Lionsgate is one of the industry leaders, as it releases to DVD a virtual who's-who in family entertainment brands including Scholastic's CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG, American Greetings' THE CARE BEARS, Cookie Jar Entertainment's THE DOODLEBOPS, MGA's BRATZ, Nelvana's MISS SPIDER'S SUNNY PATCH FRIENDS as well as SPEED RACER and the Marvel Animated Features series.
