Entertainment One Ltd started in 1973 in Ontario, Canada, as Records on Wheels Limited (‘ROW’). Initially the business focused on retail sales of recorded music. In the late 1970s ROW began to distribute recorded music for third party retailers throughout Canada. During the 1980s and 1990s distribution became the primary focus of the business and the product mix expanded to include video as well as music. In 2001 ROW established a CD and DVD fulfilment business for internet retailers utilising the infrastructure developed for the bricks and mortar distribution business. In 2003, ROW expanded its product range further to include video console games. In November 2003 ROW listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange as ROW Entertainment Income Fund, and soon after changed its name to Entertainment One Income Fund.
Following its listing Entertainment One Income Fund acquired
- In August 2004, Video One Canada Limited, at the time the largest home movie distribution business in Canada. This business was integrated into the Canadian distribution business.
- In May 2005, Reel Choice Video Limited, a wholesaler of video products to the Canadian home entertainment market. This business was integrated into the Canadian distribution business.
- In May 2006, the exclusive right to distribute music and other entertainment products to certain customers of Distribution Trans Canada, a business unit of Quedecor Media Inc. This business was integrated into the Canadian distribution business.
These acquisitions established Entertainment One as the largest distributor of home entertainment products to the non direct segment of the Canadian market.
In June 2005 Entertainment One acquired Koch Entertainment. This acquisition represented a significant strategic step for the Group, taking it into distribution in the United States through Koch Entertainment Distribution and into content ownership through Koch Records.
On March 29th 2007 the Entertainment One Income Fund was acquired by Entertainment One Ltd. for a total consideration of £85.5million and listed on AIM.
Since listing Entertainment One Ltd. has pursued its strategy to build the leading international independent entertainment content ownership and distribution business and to this end has completed three acquisitions.
- On 14 May 2007 the Group acquired Navarre Entertainment Media Inc, a distributor of independent music labels in the United States.
- On 14 June 2007 the Group acquired Contender Entertainment Group, the leading independent distributor of filmed entertainment on DVD in the UK.
- On 20 August 2007 the Group announced the acquisition of Seville Entertainment Inc. a leading Canadian film distribution company and entertainment rights owner.
On 20th September 2007 the group announced it had signed a multi territory all rights deal with film studio, Summit, for the UK and Canadian rights. This transformational deal is a significant step forward for Entertainment One, establishing it as a leading independent multi-territory entertainment content and distribution business.
On 9th January 2008, the Group completed the acquisition of RCV Entertainment BV, a leading film distributor in the Dutch and Belgium markets.