Banijay brings Castaway aboard

The Australian version of the Survivor format

European production group Banijay has acquired the UK-based production company behind hit reality format Survivor.

A spokeswoman for Banijay confirmed to C21 that the France-based firm has bought Castaway Television from owners Charlie Parsons, Lord Waheed Alli and Bob Geldof.

The deal, first reported by TBI Vision, gives Banijay rights to Survivor, the long-running competition format that has been remade around the world and continues to air in major markets such as the US, Australia and France.

In the latter, Banijay-owned prodco ALP produces the local version, Koh Lanta.

The format, which sees a group of strangers marooned on a desert island who each week hold a secret ballot to vote one of their number out of paradise, originated as Expedition Robinson in Sweden in 1997.

Then owned by Parsons, Alli and Geldof’s UK prodco Planet 24, it was remade around the world and helped pave the way for the reality TV formats boom in the late 1990s and 2000s.