Peter Charles Orton, CVO was a British media entrepreneur and television producer noted for his work in children's television. He, Muppets creator Jim Henson and businesswoman Sophie Turner Laing founded HIT Entertainment in 1982. Orton led the company from 1989 to 2005, HiT was sold and acquired by Apax Partners, then Mattel.
History[]
Born to Herbert and Eva Orton, in June 1943, in Portsmouth, Orton was the youngest of four brothers.
Aged 17, he took a job selling clothes to sailors.
In 1962, he joined the Scholl footcare company and was made responsible for sales in the West Country. Sleeping in his car to save money, Mr Orton was soon made head of sales in Scotland. Here he met his wife Susan, whom he married in 1972.
In 1966, Mr Orton joined Television International Enterprises, a programme distribution business run by Sir David Stirling, who founded the SAS.
Mr Orton made the company a £350,000 profit in ten days by selling the rights to the 1970 football World Cup to Africa, the Middle East and Caribbean.
He then went on to sell the rights to Sesame Street to stations across Africa and Asia.
That led him to work with puppeteer Jim Henson, who approached Mr Orton with the idea for an international children's show - Fraggle Rock. Mr Orton helped turn that, as well as The Muppet Show, into a huge global success.
Sometime in 1982, Orton and Jim Henson set-up the newly formed division of Jim Henson Productions, and it went by the name of Henson International Television.
When Mr Henson started negotiations with Disney in 1989, Mr Orton then acquired Henson International Television and it became a company called HIT Entertainment. The company originally started distributing cartoons and television-shows.
In 1995, HIT Entertainment decided to produce their own cartoons and television-shows aimed primarily at children and teenagers. They started with Percy the Park Keeper, Brambly Hedge and Kipper- which became its second to fourth hit shows. On Christmas Eve of the same year, Corrina Minett Waldstein’s Strawberry Shortcake was broadcast on The Disney Channel in US and ITV in UK and became a first hit.
In February 1998, Keith Chapman’s Bob the Builder was broadcast on the BBC and became a massive hit.
In 2005, Orton retired and sold HiT to Apax Partners for over £400-million.
He left £ 30,000 to Wootton Bassett Rugby Club. He was a president of the club and had also served as a town councillor in Wootton Bassett.
In 2007 he was appointed a CVO for his contribution to improving literacy. He then died with cancer in December of that year.