9 Story hands Hit exec distribution role

Canadian children’s company 9 Story Media Group has poached a top distribution executive from Hit Entertainment to handle its US and international sales.

Claudia Balzer Scott-Hansen

Claudia Balzer Scott-Hansen, formerly the senior VP and group director of broadcast for the Americas and EMEA at Mattel-owned Hit, joins 9 Story as VP of distribution.

Scott-Hansen will report to the company’s MD Natalie Osborne in the newly created role, based New York.

Osborne will continue to oversee distribution, consumer products and third-party content acquisitions for the Toronto–based company.

Prior to joining Hit in 2006, Scott-Hansen was head of formats and head of Southern European distribution at BBC Worldwide in London.

She also worked for two years at the BBC’s Natural History Unit, responsible for European coproductions.

9 Story owns brands such as Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood, Wild Kratts, Numb Chucks, Arthur and Peg+Cat, plus a mammoth library of 1,800 half-hours of animated and live-action programming.

The company, which underwent a rebrand last year shortly after media entrepreneur Neil Court became an equity investor in the business, recently acquired Irish animation studio Brown Bag Films.