A decade ago, a new vision for history content was born, and today, History Hit is thrilled to celebrate its 10th anniversary – marking a journey from a bold idea to a thriving hub for history lovers worldwide. Back in 2015 and increasingly frustrated by traditional television’s reliance on commissioners and network approvals, along with shrinking budgets for specialist factual programming, our Founder and Creative Director Dan Snow was keen to embrace the burgeoning digital landscape. Envisioning and forging a different path for sharing history, Dan experimented with innovative approaches, from engaging history lovers directly on his Facebook page to developing smartphone guides for English Heritage sites. This digital-first mindset was revolutionary. Dan explains why he started History Hit: “I believed that there was an audience for high-quality history, told by the world’s best historians, which was not being served by the traditional media”. History Hit was officially founded in 2015, leveraging Dan’s existing online presence through his popular Facebook and Twitter accounts. Our very first podcast, launched for the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo, tapped into an industry on the cusp of an explosion. We were there, ready to innovate. In the first episode, Dan was joined by his dad, veteran broadcaster Peter Snow. You can hear Dan look back to the first episode here.   The rise of podcasting proved to be a game-changer for History Hit. What made audio so special, and so vital to our early growth, was its unique ability to forge deep connections with listeners, translating into a powerful draw for advertisers. This direct link between listenership and income meant that the effort we poured into creating compelling history content was directly rewarded, allowing us to grow, invest, and begin building History Hit as it is today. As Dan explained to BBC Radio 4’s Media Show: “History is everything that’s ever happened. It is by definition the most exciting and important things that have ever happened to anyone who’s ever lived on this planet. So it’s very unsurprising to those of us that liked history and who were told it was a niche to find that it’s enormously popular.” Since its creation, History Hit has actively expanded our extensive content library and our dedicated team – successfully navigating even through recent historical events as they happened like the Covid-19 pandemic, by pivoting to remote work and online collaboration during lockdown. (We even sold historical face-masks through our online shop!) History Hit’s early days and lockdown remote working What a decade it’s been. Today, History Hit has blossomed into a premium entertainment network. In 2020, History Hit was acquired by Little Dot Studios, an award-winning digital studio and media network with over 70 channel brands. Since then we have gone on to win multiple awards and participate in newsworthy discoveries, including as part of the Endurance22 expedition, which in March 2022 found, filmed and documented the wreck of Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance. We boast eight distinct podcast series that collectively garner nearly 10 million monthly listens, bringing captivating historical discussions to ears around the globe. Our on-demand streaming service offers an unparalleled library of more than 1,250 original documentaries, delving deep into every corner of the past, with one new original documentary every week. Our YouTube channel has cultivated a massive community of 1.6 million subscribers, showcasing our commitment to visual storytelling, and after 10 years of audio storytelling, Dan Snow’s History Hit is getting behind the camera with a brand-new YouTube channel, bringing the award-winning podcast to the screen. We also have hundreds of online articles, and have collaborated with video game publisher Ubisoft to dive into the real-life history that inspires the locations, characters, and storylines of the legendary world of Assassin’s Creed. Behind the scenes, our dedicated production company is also constantly crafting new content, pushing the boundaries of historical filmmaking. Our awards to date include: History Hit’s awards celebrations At History Hit, we’re not just chronicling the past; we’re actively reinventing how history is shared. We are relentless in our pursuit of new and exciting ways to bring our audiences the extraordinary, tragic, dramatic, and endlessly fascinating stories of our shared past. Thank you for being a part of our incredible journey. Here’s to many more years of unearthing history together! Dan Snow and Executive Producer Bill Locke on location in LibyaImage Credit: History Hit Sign up to watch