On today’s episode of the Daily Variety podcast, Variety’s Leo Barraclough talks about the atmosphere and buzz along the Croisette on day two of the Mipcom Content Market in Cannes, France. Barraclough also detailed a meeting he had with Mattel Studios president Robbie Brenner. Additionally, this episode features highlights from Variety’s executive conversation session with Banijay CEO Marco Bassetti, who received the Variety Vanguard Award at Mipcom for his contributions to the global television industry.
Brenner reflected on the impact Barbie’s blockbuster success in 2023 has had on Mattel’s bold move to transform its business into a toy and game retail powerhouse as well as a media and entertainment franchise dynamo. “Barbie” got off to a great start, but it also set a high bar for the second movie, “Masters of the Universe,” scheduled for release next June.
“She understands, as all producers understand, that she’s only as good as her last hit. So a lot is riding on her next films, like ‘Matchbox’ and ‘Barney,’ which are going to be action thrillers. There’s a lot of different films and series coming up,” Barraclough says.
Meanwhile, Bassetti had a candid discussion with Variety magazine’s international editor-in-chief, Elsa Keslassy, about the reasons for the French production group’s rapid growth over the past decade and a half. The key moment came in the fall of 2019, when Banijay became the winning bidder in the Endemol Shine auction with a price tag of $2.2 billion.
“We strongly believe that in order to survive in this market, you need to have a very strong base. Frankly, in order to not be fooled by clients and to have influence, you need to have a lot of strong IP. That means retaining the IP. It also means that you can manage the IP and leverage it in different ways,” Bassetti says. “And that was the decision and the rationale for the (Endemol Shine) acquisition. By the way, at this point, we didn’t have the footprint that we have now. We don’t have distribution as strong as Endemol had at this point. We don’t have a scripted business. And we saw that the scripted business with streamers was going to start to grow. So for us, it was a perfect match.”
(Photo: Mattel’s Robbie Brenner speaks with Variety’s Leo Barraclough at Mipcon on October 14th.)
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