[7] HIT had a brand initiative called The Little Big Club, to feature some of the company's characters in live events held at shopping malls.

Peter Orton had met Jim Henson when he was at the Children's Television Workshop handling distribution of Sesame Street.

The company then began to finance and distribute animated feature films based on The Wind in the Willows and Peter Rabbit books.

Helping to fund the company was an investment by British satellite and cable television operator Flextech took a 23% share in HIT for about £600,000.

A new character came to the company's attention in 1996, when advertising executive and would-be cartoonist Keith Chapman pitched his idea to HIT Entertainment.

While a number of other producers had turned down the idea, HIT recognized its potential and bought the rights to developing the Bob the Builder character into a television series.

The deal saw Chapman retain a share of the copyright and also a contractual clause which sees his name appear on all media & merchandise related to the character.

In April, Bob the Builder successfully debuted on the BBC; in July the company made another public offering of stock.

[16] The television shows owned by Gullane included Thomas & Friends, Magic Adventures of Mumfie, and Fireman Sam, which a stake of was purchased from S4C months before.

On 1 April 2004, HIT and The Jim Henson Company agreed to a five-year global distribution and production deal which included distribution of 440 hours of TJHC's remaining library, including Fraggle Rock, Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, The Hoobs, and Jim Henson's Mother Goose Stories.

[19] On 22 March 2005, Apax Partners purchased HIT for £489.4 million,[20] taking it private,[21] with former BBC director general Greg Dyke becoming chairman.

In February 2006, HIT closed its DVD sales and distribution arm in the U.S. and signed a deal with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment to release their content in the North American market.

[citation needed] On 22 March 2007, S4C announced that they had sold their 50% stake in the Fireman Sam property to HIT, taking full ownership in the franchise.

[35] By August, the company withdrew from the JimJam joint venture, but agreed to continue providing programming for the channel until the absorption into Mattel.

Several bidders came forward, including The Walt Disney Company, Viacom, Mattel, Hasbro, Classic Media, Chorion, and Saban Brands.

[22] Apax Partners agreed to sell HIT Entertainment to Mattel on 24 October 2011 for $680 million[37][38] excluding its share of the PBS Kids Sprout television channel.

[45] in which Universal began distributing their catalogue for Blu-ray and DVD electronic sell-through and VOD platforms in the United States and Canada.

[41] On 6 October 2015, HIT Entertainment announced a long-term partnership with 9 Story Media Group to relaunch Barney & Friends and Angelina Ballerina.