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Little Dot takes History Hit

All3Media-owned Little Dot Studios has acquired History Hit, the SVoD platform co-founded by broadcaster and historian Dan Snow.

Dan Snow

The acquisition, financial details of which were not disclosed, will see HistoryHit.TV sit alongside Little Dot Studios’ factual ad-supported VoD channels, Timeline and Absolute History.

As well as featuring original and acquired programming on its VoD service, History Hit publishes its own podcasts and hosts an online community of history fans. It is also involved in licensed activities including events and book publishing.

It was co-founded by Snow with CEO Justin Gayner in 2017 as part of a successful crowdfunding campaign, billing itself as “Netflix for history shows.” It costs £5.99 (US$7.84) per month, or £49.99 per year.

As part of the deal, Snow will exclusively work with History Hit and Little Dot Studios to create online and broadcast content.

Little Dot Studios said its “growing investment” in history-themed content demonstrated the “huge demand” from consumers worldwide for TV, audio and online material relating to the genre. It also reflects All3Media’s strategy to further develop and build its digital business.

Little Dot Studios said adding History Hit would allow it to expand its history audience by adding globally recognised talent and a fast-growing SVoD subscriber base.

History Hit claims to be the UK’s biggest digital history brand across VoD, podcasts, social media and the web, with more than 100,000 subscribers to its TV and audio networks.

The acquisition of History Hit follows Little Dot Studios’ recent purchase of sports production studio WING.

Andy Taylor, co-founder and CEO of Little Dot Studios, said: “As factual history programming has fallen out of favour with some traditional broadcasters, it has boomed on digital platforms across all age groups.

“History content is an important part of our business – the average watch time on YouTube is over 30 minutes per video, with the majority of viewing taking place in the living room – and we see potential for further substantial growth in this area.”

Snow added: “I started History Hit because I believed there was an audience for high-quality history, told by the world’s best historians, which was not being served by the traditional media.

“We have made longform history programmes unlike anything else available, broadcasting new voices and new stories to subscribers from Alaska to Zambia. Our size and agility has meant we have been able to respond to the onset of Covid and the global movement against racial injustice by commissioning audio and video with a range of new voices, virologists, medical historians, activists and historians of colour to help provide audiences with context for the upheavals they see around them.

“Today is the start of the next phase. Little Dot is the perfect home for us. They are best in the business at attracting gigantic audiences online through their world-beating YouTube channels. It is a killer combination. Together, we are going to transform the way people watch and listen; always innovating, but never forgetting that the key is giving our hugely sophisticated, highly engaged audience what they struggle to find elsewhere: high-quality history.”

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