Ex-Hit Wildlife man firms up Parthenon

Following his recent MBO of Hit Entertainment's increasingly sidelined Hit Wildlife division, Carl Hall is readying a slate for the new incarnation Parthenon Entertainment.

Ex-Hit Wildlife md Hall has already got commissions in the bag as md and founder of Parthenon Entertainment, which takes over Hit Wildlife's 300-hour library as part of the MBO agreement. Darcy Wyvill, who came across from Canada's Sullivan Entertainment, is the company's sales director.

Parthenon is working on a one-hour special about the UK's Stonehenge for National Geographic and a 13×30 series for Discovery Europe's Animal Planet channel called Global Guardians, which looks at conservation success stories around the world.

Parthenon is also wrapping some 30 hours for Nat Geo, Discovery and The History Channel that came across from Hit.

{The company will specialise in the top-end of the wildlife business,{ Hall told C21, {and in classic history – anything with a long shelf-life.{

Hall added that the wildlife market is healthy enough, despite a couple of years of doom-and-gloom. The problem is that {producers just aren't making wildlife that buyers want,{ he said.

Still sharing a stand with Hit at MipTV just gone, Parthenon will fly the Hit nest completely this summer, with an official launch at this autumn's Wildscreen. Hall is in the process of signing four major first-look output deals with broadcasters around the world.