The Banijay–All3Media mega-merger won’t complete for months but speculation abounds that Banijay remains interested in ITV Studios, which will soon split from ITV if the network sells to Sky.
Repeatedly talking up the need for consolidation on today’s Banijay group call about the deal, which has created an $8B production group, Banijay Group CEO François Riahi responded to reports in the French press that Banijay is still looking at the ITV production arm.
“What I said to French press was that we are excluding nothing,” said Riahi. “That goes for ITV Studios or any other. But clearly the point today is that consolidation is the name of the game.”
Responding to a similar question from Deadline yesterday on whether Banijay had more deals in the offing, Banijay Entertainment CEO Marco Bassetti said “the market and industry and the landscape are changing so quickly that we don’t know exactly where we will be in one year and a half.” “Maybe we could invest more in digital, in live, in sport, in these kind of areas, but maybe in one and a half or two years’ time, things are going to different,” he added.
“All3Media was smaller than us”
On today’s call, Riahi said Banijay and RedBird IMI, who are going into business together as All3Media is combined with Banijay, “share this view.”
Notably, Riahi’s feeling is that “RedBird IMI bought All3Media to create this kind of global platform… they realized they could not do it starting with All3, which was smaller than us, and smaller than ITV Studios, so that is why they combined their asset with ours.”
All3Media has been quiet in the M&A space since RedBird IMI acquired the super-producer, which we have previously reported has led to internal frustration.
Riahi explained that Banijay had been interested in talks with RedBird IMI over All3Media since the Jeff Zucker and Gerry Cardinale-owned firm bought All3Media.
Both have since shown an interest in ITV Studios. “They have talked to other people, we have talked to other people, sometimes the same people,” he added. “We didn’t achieve consolidation of other studios so finally it was natural that we come together and say, ‘OK we want the same thing’.”
Riahi cited the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal several times during the call as evidence of the power of consolidation.
“Why is Warner valued so much?,” he added. “Because, in our industry, IP, scale and global position are very important. That is what we are strengthening.”
