Fresh off its merger, the Banijay/All3Media behemoth, now known as Banijay Entertainment, is eyeing an expansion into U.S. scripted production as Netflix looks to ramp up its slate of American hits amid a major shake-up of its content leadership. Speaking at Rome’s MIA Market, Banijay Entertainment chief business officer Frédéric Balmary said in an interview with Variety that the group, which ranks as the world’s largest independent studio, looks to capitalize on Netflix’s renewed focus on U.S. programming, while continuing to grow its English-language scripted business, bolstered by the merger with All3Media, and its roster of talent including George Kay and Sam Mendes. Balmary also discussed the growing global appetite for European dramas, the U.K.’s role as a bridge between Hollywood and Europe, and the financial pressures facing U.S. studios and streamers.
He stressed the importance of retaining IP, echoing CEO Marco Bassetti’s call for European producers to hold their ground when it comes to negotiating terms of trade. Well, the English language market is certainly growing, and that was also one of the rationales of the merger deal between All3Media and Banijay. At Banijay we were already growing in the U.K. scripted market with a few acquisition we’ve done in past years, like The Forge Entertainment and the other British companies we invest in.
But All3 has incredible talents in the scripted sphere, from [“Lupin’ creator] George Kay to Sam Mendes, to many others. We’ve always said that our business is based on talent and IP, and the growing English market is really where we want to be, in order to follow the market. Not only in production, also in distribution.
We are already there, but not as a studio. We’ve done the “Ripley” series and these kinds of things, though more on the packaging side. Today it’s really a growing area.
From its last earnings call, it’s clear that Netflix is looking for more U.S. hits. I think that was part of Marco’s vision in saying maybe we will also follow that growth area and be more active in that space in the U.S. The latest Netflix call underlined the growth in terms of viewers of content coming from non-English language countries.
We are quite strong in that space. With Italy, of course, Groenlandia being one of the most successful scripted Italian companies. But also in Spain, where we have the company Pokeepsie that just made “Drawn Together” on Amazon that was a fantastic success because they are number one worldwide.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
