Pictured: Missy Peregrym stars in eOne hit Rookie Blue.

All things being equal, it’s difficult to imagine that the next decade won’t belong to eOne.

If you consider its humble beginnings, it’s hard to reconcile the production/distribution behemoth as it exists today. Although it is now inextricably linked to the film and television industries, Entertainment One began life as a retail music store in Toronto.

Established as Records on Wheels in 1973, the company gradually evolved over the next two decades, but one would have been hard-pressed to see signs of the growth to come.

It was not until well into the new millennium that eOne really hit its stride, perhaps most definitively signaled by the company’s change of name to the Entertainment One Income Fund in 2003.

Shortly after that, the rapid-fire acquisitions began.

In 2004, the company picked up Video One Canada, which at the time was one the largest home movie distribs in Canada. The next year, eOne bought Reel Choice Video, a wholesaler of video products.

The company really began its modern manifestation in 2005, with the acquisition of Koch Entertainment – a pick-up which opened the doors to US distribution.

Then came 2007, and the start of two years of aggressive and rapid expansion. It began with Entertainment One taking over Navarre Entertainment Media, an indie music distributor in the US, and then lining up to purchase the Contender Entertainment Group, one of the largest distribs of TV content in the UK. Next came a significant acquisition in the form of Montreal’s Seville Entertainment.

But all that was just an appetizer. In 2008, eOne acquired RCV Entertainment, an indie film distributor in Benelux, before pulling the trigger on a successive series of acquisitions: Barna-Alper Productions, Blueprint Entertainment, Oasis International, Maximum Film International and Maximum Films.

Less dramatic, but equally important, were partnerships formed with companies such as Summit Entertainment, Yari Film Group and ThinkFilm.

The result is a company primed for the coming decade. eOne’s current rights library is estimated to be worth
US$250 million and contains more than 20,000 film and TV titles, 2,500 hours of television programming and 45,000 music tracks. About 120 films are added to that total every year.

eOne also boasts a distribution network that stretches across Canada, the US, the UK, Ireland, Benelux, France, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. And in July, eOne received a listing on the London Stock Exchange’s main market for listed securities.

Really, all that can be said about eOne over the next 10 years… Watch this space.