{"id":457184,"date":"2026-03-04T14:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/457184\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T14:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:22:11","slug":"banijay-boss-talks-itv-studios-interest-redbird-consolidation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/457184\/","title":{"rendered":"Banijay Boss Talks ITV Studios Interest, RedBird & Consolidation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Banijay<\/a>\u2013All3Media<\/a> mega-merger won\u2019t complete for months but speculation abounds that Banijay remains interested in ITV Studios<\/a>, which will soon split from ITV if the network sells to Sky.<\/p>\n

\n\tRepeatedly talking up the need for consolidation on today\u2019s Banijay group call about the deal, which has created an $8B production group, Banijay Group CEO Fran\u00e7ois Riahi\u00a0responded to reports in the French press that Banijay is still looking at the ITV production arm.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat I said to French press was that we are excluding nothing,\u201d said Riahi. \u201cThat goes for ITV Studios or any other. But clearly the point today is that consolidation is the name of the game.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tResponding to a similar question from Deadline yesterday on whether Banijay had more deals in the offing, Banijay Entertainment CEO Marco Bassetti said \u201cthe market and industry and the landscape are changing so quickly that we don\u2019t know exactly where we will be in one year and a half.\u201d \u201cMaybe 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\u2019 time, things are going to different,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAll3Media was smaller than us\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tOn today\u2019s call, Riahi said Banijay and RedBird IMI<\/a>, who are going into business together as All3Media is combined with Banijay, \u201cshare this view.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNotably, Riahi\u2019s feeling is that \u201cRedBird IMI bought All3Media to create this kind of global platform\u2026 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tAll3Media 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tRiahi explained that Banijay had been interested in talks with RedBird IMI over All3Media since the Jeff Zucker and Gerry Cardinale-owned firm bought All3Media. <\/p>\n

\n\tBoth have since shown an interest in ITV Studios. \u201cThey have talked to other people, we have talked to other people, sometimes the same people,\u201d he added. \u201cWe didn\u2019t achieve consolidation of other studios so finally it was natural that we come together and say, \u2018OK we want the same thing\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRiahi cited the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal several times during the call as evidence of the power of consolidation.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhy is Warner valued so much?,\u201d he added. \u201cBecause, in our industry, IP, scale and global position are very important. That is what we are strengthening.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Banijay\u2013All3Media mega-merger won\u2019t complete for months but speculation abounds that Banijay remains interested in ITV Studios, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[52532,717,96,11522,52533,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-457184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-all3media","9":"tag-banijay","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-itv-studios","12":"tag-redbird-imi","13":"tag-tv","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}