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Media

Media Beat: The Ongoing History of eOne and More Success For Alan Cross

Also, almost laughable news about how Ottawa continues to bungle in the digital jungle.

Media Beat: The Ongoing History of eOne and More Success For Alan Cross
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Hasbro Sells Remaining Interest In Entertainment One

Former Records on Wheels executive Darren Throop spun eOne into an entertainment conglomerate that he sold to the U.S. firm that made its money in toy and game trademark licensing. The selling price was a whopping US$4B, which included a strong mix of entertainment products. That was in 2019, and its founder has since walked into the sunset with a bundle of cash and stock. In 2021, Hasbro sold its non-core eOne Film and TV business for approximately $500, as reported by Private Capital Journal.

Variety now reports that Hasbro has sold the remaining eOne assets to Canadian-American conglomerate Lionsgate Ent. The deal is pegged at around $500M. That’s a lot of wheeling and dealing that all started with a guy who saw an opportunity while working with ROW’s Ierullo brothers, Donnie and Vito.


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Fed is bungling digital security for itself and the population

Government employees are pretty much free to download apps on their work-issued devices without a thought to what information may be endangered when they do so, and the RCMP is two years late in launching a cybercrime and fraud reporting system. Matt Malone has the story, published by The Globe and Mail. It would be comical were it not so worrying about the level of ineptness in high places.

Ditching Broadband For Wireless Internet Connectivity

Rogers Communications is pitching hard-to-sell customers on a new way of connectivity. Having lost the cable war, the telco has high hopes to sell another service that links phone, cable and internet services in a single bundle that replaces wire and cable with cell tower connectivity. It’s the new way of bundling services connected to a new technology that has its advantages and disadvantages. Alexandra Posadzki at The Globe and Mail summarizes the new kid on the block.

Alan Cross Now Hosting 2 Shows Daily on Corus Radio Brands

The Ongoing History of New Music and Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry can now be heard daily on Corus AM stations in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Toronto and London, ON.

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Has Spotify DJ Killed the Radio Star?

AI and Spotify make a marriage made in heaven – or at the very least, offer a placebo for the real deal, which might actually be a human being sharing information and bringing human intelligence to a sequence of events that meld music with intelligence that’s not the sum total of a series of sequential digits knitted together to replace a salaried DJ and the weirdly old-fashioned broadcast of a someone who knows what he/she is talking about. Harry Hughes on Radio Today pitches an argument that makes a case for weighing the option of being played to or having someone play something from the heart.

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Tate McRae photographed by Heather Hazzan on February 20, 2026 in New York. Motion Stills by Grayson Kohs. Styling by Chloe & Chenelle. Hair by Joey George at Streeters. Makeup by Kennedy at Streeters. Manicure by Juan Alvear. Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello jacket and shoes.
Tate McRae photographed by Heather Hazzan on February 20, 2026 in New York. Motion Stills by Grayson Kohs. Styling by Chloe & Chenelle. Hair by Joey George at Streeters. Makeup by Kennedy at Streeters. Manicure by Juan Alvear. Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello jacket and shoes.
Awards

How Tate McRae Leveled Up To Main Pop Girl Status

Billboard's Women in Music Hitmaker is known for her stunning performances — but her pen has always been her secret weapon, and it's yielding pop bangers.

Before there was Tate McRae, ultra-polished pop performer, there was Tate McRae, preteen from Calgary, Alberta, writing songs at home and uploading them to YouTube.

And while McRae’s high-caliber, intricately choreographed performances and visually striking, maximalist music videos have arguably become the focal points of her public image today (manifesting in a fierce alter ego she calls Tatiana), it’s her other side that Billboard is honoring as this year’s Women in Music Hitmaker — the one who used to take solace in crafting lyrics to sing not in front of more than 10,000 screaming fans but alone in her bedroom. The 22-year-old’s underappreciated pen is just as lethal as her performance capabilities. After a modest debut in the familiar lane of Gen Z pop melancholia — making her first Billboard Hot 100 appearance in 2020 with “You Broke Me First” — McRae enlisted fellow hit-makers Ryan Tedder and Amy Allen to help craft pristine, radio-­friendly pop bangers that she could actually move to, tapping into her upbringing as a competitive dancer onstage and channeling past pop icons such as Britney Spears (to whom she’s now ­frequently compared).

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