Jeff Zucker and Marco Bassetti had their eyes on the same award two years ago. Now they can do it together.
Redbird IMI, led by Mr. Zucker, and Banijay have signed a deal worth $8 billion to merge All3 Media and Banijay, whose CEO is Mr. Bassetti. The deal will combine All3Media’s shows and formats, such as “The Traitors” and “Undercover Boss,” with Banijay’s vast library of global series, from “Big Brother” and “MasterChef” to “Peaky Blinders” and “Black Mirror.”
A deal between two of Europe’s top indie production ventures surprised the market Tuesday morning. RedBird IMI acquired All3Media in May 2024 from previous owners Warner Bros. Discovery and Liberty Global. Banijay was eyeing All 3 Media at the time, but refrained from making a bid. Early last year, Mr. Bassetti and Mr. Zucker had an igniting conversation. Formal negotiations to unite the two groups began in earnest in the fall, culminating in the formal signing of the agreement on Tuesday night London time. Both partners expect the agreement to be approved by euro regulators by the end of the third quarter.
If all goes according to plan, Bassetti will become CEO of the publicly traded expansion company Banijay. Mr. Zucker will become Chairman of the Board while continuing to make other investments at Redbird IMI. All3Media CEO Jane Turton will become Deputy CEO. Bassetti cited Banijay’s track record of absorbing Endemol Shine North America in 2020 as a model for how to turn one plus one into three after a merger. All3Media itself has grown through a steady stream of acquisitions since its founding in 2003.
Just an hour after shaking hands on the deal, Mr. Bassetti and Mr. Zucker spoke to Variety about why it was the right time for their companies to join forces and how they hope to build on their strengths.
Marco, you looked at All3Media a few years ago but didn’t use it at the time. Why was now the right time for this deal?
Marco Bassetti: Jeff was smarter than us, so we made the deal. If you look back two years ago, the market is different and has changed very quickly. So we think what we need to scale is more assets. All3Media continues to create great work like “The Traitors” and other big new shows. I very much appreciated the way Jane Turton managed it. And we are very happy to have her with us. They are very complementary to us because they are a very strong digital business. They’re very good at digital monetization and content creation, and they’re also very adaptable, like they did with the Squid Game. All3Media is very strong in the English market, which is the market we have to enter. I believe that without geographical limitations, we will have many opportunities for the future. That’s the main reason we signed this contract.
Read more: Banijay boss Marco Bassetti talks about navigating industry headwinds, leveraging hit series and live entertainment success
Jeff, same question for you. Why now? What made you feel it was the right time to make this deal?
Jeff Zucker: We’ve owned All3Media for 20 months, just under two years. I’ll tell you, I think it was two months after we closed that deal, Stéphane Courvit, the majority owner of Banijay Group, came to see me in New York. And we had owned All3Media for about eight weeks, and Stefan was already looking to do a deal. So we told him then that we should explore All3 for a while and then have a meeting. Marco organized the meeting. So at the beginning of last year Stefan called us again and we were certainly ready to have a conversation. The conversation really started to get real late last summer, and we’ve been talking very seriously for the past six months.
The timing is right for two reasons. One is that the global media ecosystem is changing and evolving so rapidly that we can’t just sit back and watch, we need to keep coming back stronger. And I think we were able to do that through this merger. Listen, the organization Banijay and Marco lead is a world-class company. And for us, the opportunity for All3Media and Banijay to come together is a very exciting opportunity to create the world’s largest independent media content company with global reach and world-class IP at a pivotal time in the evolving media ecosystem. So the timing was right and the combination was perfect. Clearly, there were so many complementary strengths. Banijay has strengths in live event programming. One of its companies just produced the opening ceremony of the Milan Olympics. I think All3’s strength in monetizing content on new digital platforms through Little Dot Studios, and our ability to do that across a much larger catalog, all combine to make us a truly global company with incredible, world-class IP that is unparalleled.
Jeff, you come from the US media. What has surprised you about the business during your time at All3Media? Are there any strengths or aspects of the industry in the UK and Europe that you find interesting and different from the US?
Zucker: Just to be clear, Jane Turton ran All3Media for us. And as Marco hinted, we’re excited for Jane to stay and work with Marco. And I think this combination really gives us confidence going forward. Regarding your question about what surprised us. What really matters today is the strength of all these franchises. Over the past 18 months, The Traitors has been a huge hit. Whether you’re talking in the UK, whether you’re talking in the US, whether you’re talking about The Celebrity Traitors, the explosion of that franchise and format happened at a time when people didn’t know about it. Can we beat the new format? That was incredibly exciting. Couple this with the amazing franchises that Banijay has to offer, such as “MasterChef,” “Big Brother,” and “Survivors.” I think this is a really great combination of incredible programming and formatting. And I think that’s what we’re so excited about.
Marco, will we be able to do things together that we couldn’t do separately? Using Traitors as an example, if you have a format that’s blowing up like this, could it be more grounded in more markets and leveraged more thoroughly?
Bassetti: That’s a good point. For example, we have a production company that All3Media doesn’t currently have, so we may be able to produce “Traitor” in the future, or even restart the show. In the UK, for example, Big Brother went on hiatus for two years and then restarted with great success. The same goes for “Deal or No Deal.” So I think our group has this skill, and it’s not just “traitors.” We have great formats in our catalog, but maybe they haven’t been able to take advantage of them because they don’t have the footprint that we have.
Zucker: I also want to embarrass Marco a little bit. One of the things that gives us great confidence going forward is that Marco will be at the helm of this new, much larger company. That gives us great comfort and the fact that Jane will also be on board with it and work with Marco. We have a very dynamic leadership team to drive this team forward.
The synergy goal is approximately $60 million. Will it be by combining redundant operations? Will there be integration between staff?
Zucker: When you merge two companies like this, obviously there’s duplication of real estate, duplication of operations, and so on. Therefore, it stands to reason that such combinations offer cost synergies. Yes, it will be important. But I don’t think this is just a cost synergy. This is also a real opportunity for growth. And I think there will be growth through the new company’s ability to monetize the format, just as Marco hinted at creating “traitors” in markets we are not in and monetizing the Banijay catalog in ways that have not been done before. No one collapsed at work, they just had abilities elsewhere that they didn’t have. And that will give us growth and revenue opportunities. I think combining those with the obvious cost synergies that are a normal part of combinations like this gives us a lot of excitement about what this company can do together.
Bassetti: But let me add a little bit to this. We don’t want creative synergy. We want to create synergies where there is overlap and other types of costs. Look at what we did a few years ago with Endemol Shine. This clearly shows all the money we have invested on the creative side to create more opportunities for the group, and we believe we can do the same with All3Media.
Given the global scale of platforms like Paramount, Warner Bros., and Netflix, do you think it’s important to achieve greater scale and weight? Do you feel that it is accelerating the consolidation of production assets?
Zucker: Of course. The reality is that the media ecosystem is changing around the world and we felt it was important to ensure we were responsive to it for a variety of reasons. Scaling up the global entertainment industry is critical. I think the fact that we have world-class IP makes that even stronger. But the reality is that the media world is changing, we’re changing with it, and we’re excited to be a key player in that world. I don’t know if I’ve shared this number with you, but the combined company will have an enterprise value of about $8 billion.
Jeff, tell us about yourself and your role at RedBird IMI. Has that changed at all? Do you still maintain that partnership in your role as Chairman of the Board of Banijay?
Zucker: Yes, RedBird IMI still has other portfolio companies. Therefore, we will continue to manage these and I will be the Chairman of the Board of this company. But you know, frankly, this is the most important company in our portfolio. And you know, we started that joint venture (RedBird IMI) three years ago and we’ve gotten here. We are really proud of what we have achieved in just three years. And we couldn’t have done it without the support of our friends in Abu Dhabi (through private media company IMI). It is exciting for Banijay Group as well. The fact that they are now partners in Abu Dhabi as well, I’ve heard him say it many times, and I don’t want to speak for Stefan, but that’s an interesting part of this as well.
We’ve written a lot about Saudi Arabia and the Middle East market opening up for entertainment. Do you think it’s a big opportunity for you?
Bassetti: We’re already there. With Balich Wonder Studio (on the Banijay label), we were in Dubai and Saudi Arabia. So we are already active there. Additionally, the financial combination of the two groups, our shareholders, and All3 shareholders (RedBird IMI) will allow us to become an even more natural integrator in our industry.
When did you sign the contract? Congratulations on keeping your mouth shut.
Zucker: We signed about an hour ago.
