Entertainment One

Entertainment One Ltd.

Formerly called	Records On Wheels Limited (1970–1980) ROW Entertainment (1980–2005) Contender Entertainment Group (1995-2007) Seville Pictures (1999-2007) Entertainment One Income Fund (2005–2009) E1 Entertainment (2009–2010)
Type	Public
Traded as	LSE: ETO
Industry	Media
Predecessor	Koch Entertainment Alliance Films Alliance Atlantis
Founded	1973 as Records on Wheels
Founder	Darren Throop
Headquarters	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Key people	Allan Leighton (Non-Executive Director & Chairman) Darren Throop (CEO) John Morayniss (CEO, Television) Steve Bertram (President, Global Film Group)
Products	Music Film Television Distribution Music Publishing
Revenue	£802.7 million (2016)[1]
Operating income	£75.0 million (2016)[1]
Net income	£40.2 million (2016)[1]
Divisions	Divisions eOne Distribution eOne Family eOne Films eOne Music eOne Television
Subsidiaries	Subsidiaries Amblin Partners (2%) Astley Baker Davies[2] AutoMatik (50%) Entertainment One UK Ltd.[3] Dualtone Music Group Force Four Entertainment Hardlivings[4] Last Gang[5] Les Films Christal Les Films Séville The Mark Gordon Company (51%) Momentum Pictures Paperny Entertainment Phase 4 Films Renegade83 (65%)[6] Secret Location[7] Sierra Pictures
Website	entertainmentone.com

Entertainment One (also simply known as eOne, stylized as entertainment One) is a publicly traded Canadian multinational media distribution company.^[8] Based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition, distribution, and production of entertainment content, including films, television series, and music. The company became a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index in 2013.^[9][10]

Founded in 1973 as retail music distributor Records on Wheels,^[11] by 2003 the company had begun to expand into home entertainment distribution, and international film and television acquisition and production through the acquisition of Alliance Films, along with other distributors and studios.

History

eOne began operations in 1973 in Ontario, Canada, as Records on Wheels (ROW) Limited, founded and operated by Vito Ierullo and Don Ierullo, focusing on retail sales of recorded music. In the late 1970s, ROW began to distribute recorded music for third-party retailers in Canada. For more than 20 years, entertainment content distribution became the company’s primary focus as the company expanded into video, purchasing one of Canada’s largest home entertainment distributors, Video One Canada, Ltd., from its then-parent, Standard Broadcasting Corporation. In November 2003, the company was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange as ROW Entertainment Income Fund.^[12]

In June 2005, ROW Entertainment Income Fund acquired the American independent music distributor and home entertainment publisher Koch Entertainment. In 2007, the company, now known as the Entertainment One Income Fund, accepted a $188 million public equity takeover by Marwyn Investment Management to fund its expansion; the company was listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market as Entertainment One Ltd.^[13][14] In 2007, Entertainment One acquired Montreal-based film distributor Seville Pictures and UK distributor Contender Entertainment Group.^[15] The same year, the company secured its first film output agreement with Summit Entertainment, handling distribution in Canada and the United Kingdom.^[16] Acquisitions continued in 2008 with the purchase of the Benelux distributor RCV Entertainment.^[17] The same year, eOne acquired the television studios Blueprint and Barna-Alper, and international television distributor Oasis International.^[18]

In April 2011, eOne acquired Australian distribution company Hopscotch for £12.9 million.^[19] On May 28, 2012, eOne placed a bid to purchase the Canadian film distributor Alliance Films from Goldman Sachs Group and Investissement Quebec.^[20] The deal was completed on January 9, 2013, giving eOne Canadian distribution rights for titles from Sony Pictures Entertainment, The Weinstein Company, Lionsgate Films and Focus Features.^[21] On May 28, 2014, eOne announced a strategic investment in interactive agency Secret Location; the firm would continue to operate independently under the leadership of James Milward (President, Executive Producer and Founder), and partners Pietro Gagliano (Creative Director and SVP) and Ryan Andal (Technical Director and SVP).^[22] On June 2, 2014, eOne acquired Phase 4 Films; its CEO Berry Meyerowitz was named as head of eOne's U.S. film distribution business and North American family entertainment business.^[23] On July 17, the company acquired Paperny Entertainment.^[24][25] On August 28, 2014, eOne acquired Force Four Entertainment.^[26]

On January 5, 2015, eOne acquired a 51% stake in The Mark Gordon Co.; Gordon was named CEO of the studio, which planned to produce and finance future film and television projects by Gordon and others in an effort by eOne to increase its prominence in the United States. eOne will have an option to acquire the remainder of the studio beginning in 2022.^[27] On September 9, 2015, eOne revived the Momentum Pictures brand (which was previously used by Alliance UK) and announced that it had entered into a multi-picture deal with Orion Pictures to jointly acquire films for "specialized theatrical releases" in the U.S., and targeted international releases, focusing on ancillary and digital distribution.^[28]

Marwyn Investment Management sold its majority stake in Entertainment One to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) on September 16, 2015.^[29][30]

On September 30, 2015, eOne acquired a 70% stake in British animation studio Astley Baker Davies—producers of the animated children's series Peppa Pig.^[31] On December 16, 2015, eOne, Steven Spielberg, Reliance Entertainment, and Participant Media officially announced a joint venture known as Amblin Partners. eOne serves as an investor, while the majority of its films will be distributed by Universal Pictures.^[32]

On January 7, 2016, eOne made a strategic investment in Sierra Pictures^[33] and on January 20, 2016, the company acquired Dualtone Music Group.^[34] On March 8, 2016, eOne acquired music recording, publishing and artist management company Last Gang, and announced Chris Taylor would join the company in the new role of President, Entertainment One Music.^[35] On March 24, 2016, eOne acquired a 65% interest in David Garfinkle and Jay Renfroe’s unscripted production company Renegade 83.^[36]

On August 10, 2016, eOne rejected an offer to be acquired by British television broadcaster ITV plc for £1 billion ($1.3 billion US). eOne considered the offer to be "fundamentally undervalued".^[37] On August 17, 2016, eOne announced it completed its investment in digital studio Secret Location.^[38] On September 12, 2016, eOne announced its acquisition of UK-based music management company Hardlivings.^[39]

eOne Films

On January 7, 2016, eOne made a strategic investment in Sierra Pictures.^[40] On September 9, 2016, eOne announced it entered into a first look co-financing and international distribution deal for feature films with Tucker Tooley under his film and production company Tooley Productions.^[41] The first project under the deal will be a film adaptation of Harlan Coben's novel Fool Me Once, starring and produced by Julia Roberts under her Red Om Films banner.^[42] On September 23, 2016, Xavier Dolan's film Juste la fin du monde was announced as Canada’s entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category for the 2017 Academy Awards. The film has been sold worldwide by eOne’s Seville International sales arm, and is distributed in Canada by eOne/Les Films Seville.^[43]

eOne Television

Notable Entertainment One television productions include: Hung for HBO,^[44] Mary Mary on WeTV, Call Me Fitz on DirecTV, The Bridge on CTV,^[45] Rookie Blue on ABC and Global^[46] and Haven on Syfy.^[47] Entertainment One’s sales catalogue includes such series as: David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef; Sky Living’s The Enfield Haunting; and AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire, The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead, due to a 2013 multi-year international output deal agreement between the firm and AMC Networks and Sundance Channel.^[48]

eOne Music

With staff in New York, LA, Toronto and Nashville, eOne Music US, formerly E1 Music/Koch Records, is generally regarded as the largest independent music label in North America.^[49] Since its inception as Koch Records, eOne Music US has charted over 100 albums on Billboard's Independent Chart, surpassing the number of titles charted by all other U.S. independent label and was the number one independent label according to Billboard for four consecutive years. The music division covers all musical genres from hip hop, adult-contemporary, rock, urban, country, children's and classical. eOne owns the catalog of seminal hip hop label Death Row as well as the indie rock label Dualtone (Lumineers, Shakey Graves).^[50] The music business has recently expanded into management and music publishing.^[51]

eOne Music Canada is a full-service record label and distribution company, with its own in-house marketing and publicity team and a sales staff across the country. Artist roster includes Emilie-Claire Barlow, Jason Blaine, Dan Talevski, Die Mannequin, Matt Dusk, Diemonds, The Standstills, Rival Sons, Devin Townsend, Jesse Cook and 2015 Polaris Music Prize winner Buffy Sainte-Marie. Director of Media Relations for Canada, Eric Alper, is also a CTV Music Correspondent and host of the music-based interview program @ThatEricAlper on SiriusXM.

On March 8, 2016, Entertainment One announced the appointment of leading music industry attorney and music industry entrepreneur, Chris Taylor, to the role of President of Entertainment One Music. The company also shared that Taylor will bring his independent recording, publishing and artist management company Last Gang to eOne, whose impressive roster includes record label clients Death From Above 1979, Chromeo and Ryan Hemsworth, and management clients Lights and Arkells. The announcement was made by Darren Throop, President & Chief Executive Officer of Entertainment One.

eOne Family & Licensing

Based in the United Kingdom and Canada, eOne Family (formerly E1 Kids) creates, produces and distributes children’s entertainment with partners including Nick Jr and Channel 5, in 190 territories including the United States, Scandinavia, France and Germany. eOne Family’s Peppa Pig franchise is one of the most popular pre-school brands in the UK, surpassing over £100 million in retail sales in the 2009 financial period.^[52] On September 18, 2015, eOne Family’s newest preschool series, PJ Masks, premiered on Disney Channel and Disney Junior in the U.S.^[53]

eOne Distribution

eOne's Distribution division delivers, through both physical and digital channels, eOne’s own and third party content to over 3,000 retail partners through its networks across Canada and the United States.^[54]

Partners

Through various deals and terms, eOne has a distribution deal with the following companies, whether in full or in part:

Film

Television

Music

• EMP Label Group
  • EMP Underground

Sport

• AS Roma

Recent/upcoming releases

Films

TV series

Kids/family

Acquisitions and targets

Since listing on AIM, eOne has made a series of acquisitions.

• In June 2007, eOne acquired Contender Entertainment Group, one of the largest distributors of TV content in the UK^[57] (now operates as eOne UK)
• In August 2007, eOne acquired Seville Entertainment Inc. for an undisclosed sum^[58] (now operates as Les Films Séville)
• In January 2008, eOne acquired the Netherlands-based distributor RCV Entertainment^[59] (now operates as eOne Benelux)
• In July 2008, eOne acquired TV producers Blueprint Entertainment and Barna-Alper Productions as well as domestic distributors Oasis International and Maximum Films.^[60] (Barna-Alper now operating as eOne Television, Maximum Films amalgamated into eOne Films Canada while Maximum Film International was amalgamated into Les Films Séville, all others closed)
• In April 2011, eOne acquired Australian distribution company Hopscotch for £12.9 million.^[19] (now operates as eOne Australia)
• In January 2013 eOne acquired Alliance Films.^[61] and ceased operation of it and its subsidiaries (Momentum Pictures and Maple Pictures, excpet for Aurum Producciones, now operating as eOne Spain). In 2015, they relaunched Momentum Pictures in Toronto.
• In June 2014 eOne acquired Phase 4 Films.^[23]
• In July 2014, eOne acquired Paperny Entertainment.^[24][25]
• In August 2014, eOne acquired Force Four Entertainment.^[26]
• In May 2014, eOne made a strategic equity investment in interactive agency Secret Location, which continues to operate independently.
• In January 2015, eOne acquired a 51% stake in The Mark Gordon Company, the production studio behind such TV series as Quantico, Grey’s Anatomy, Army Wives, Ray Donovan and Criminal Minds; and films such as Steve Jobs, Source Code, The Day After Tomorrow, and Speed.
• In September 2015, eOne acquired a controlling stake on Astley Baker Davies thus increasing its ownership of the preschool franchise Peppa Pig.
• In March 2016, eOne announced the appointment of leading music industry attorney and music industry entrepreneur, Chris Taylor, to the role of President, Entertainment One Music. The Company also shared that Taylor will bring his independent recording, publishing and artist management company Last Gang to eOne, whose impressive roster includes record label clients Death From Above 1979, Chromeo and Ryan Hemsworth, and management clients Lights and Arkells.

Former names and logos

• 
  Records On Wheels Limited (1970–1980)
• 
  ROW Entertainment (1980–2005)
• 
  Entertainment One Income Fund (2005–2009)
• 
  E1 Entertainment (2009–2010)
• 
  Entertainment One (2010–2015)
• 
  Entertainment One (2015–present)
• 
  Alternative variant (2015–present)

References

External links

• Official website
• UK Official site