The studio was first incorporated in September 1997, and was officially established on 1 April 1998 by Jackie Cockle, Brian Little, and Joe Dembinski.

with an accompanying promo produced at HOT, which beat Kylie Minogue's "Please Stay", Eminem's "Stan", and Westlife's "What Makes a Man" among others to become the Christmas number-one single.

Pingu, a Swiss-British animated series about a family of penguins, was recreated with great success from 2003 to 2006.

HOT ceased to produce the main series of Bob the Builder after 2008 when the studio announced that jobs would be cut, and opted to produce a direct-to-DVD series called Bob the Builder: On Site, using stop motion from Bob's world and live action from real world construction sites.

The studio closed prior to HIT's purchase by Mattel, but was fully dissolved on 18 August 2012.