MUMBAI: Hit Entertainment and The Jim Henson Company have reached an agreement on a five-year global rights and production venture.

Hit will now distribute Henson's family properties across many platforms, including television, home entertainment and consumer products. In India, Hit provides content to Turner's children's channel Pogo.

Henson's catalogue consist of 440 hours of titles including Fraggle Rock which used to air on Doordarshan. However, the deal does not include titles involving the Muppets or Bear in the Big Blue House. As reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, these rights were acquired by Disney in February 2004.

In addition to the distribution deal, the arrangement provides for the production of new properties, which will also be distributed by Hit. The first of such projects is Frances. The pre-school programme is based on the best-selling Frances Treasury series of books.

Interestingly, Hit's founder Peter Orton used to lead Henson's international TV sales division. Orton was quoted in a company release saying, "The Henson name stands for outstanding quality in programming and we are confident of being able to maximise the value of these excellent properties. The combination of Jim Henson programming and our own pre-school classics presents a formidable portfolio of young children's properties. We are especially pleased to be forging such a close and strong relationship with The Jim Henson Company, given the shared legacy of both companies."