Banijay renames Zodiak Rights

Banijay Group has rebranded its international sales arm a year after its merger with Zodiak Media.

Zodiak Rights, which endured following the combination of the two companies last February in place of its opposite number’s distribution wing Banijay International, has now been renamed Banijay Rights.

The division’s CEO Tim Mutimer said retaining a reference to rights in the new name best reflected the business’s activities and also brought a sense of continuity, not only from the previous Zodiak unit but also that of precursor RDF Rights.

“Banijay has 61 production entities in 16 territories and we’re delighted that Banijay Rights represents programming from all of these companies, as well as content from a wide range of third-party producers,” said Mutimer.

The company’s US reality TV arm Bunim/Murray Productions last week entered into a joint development deal with Canada’s Insight Productions, the fruits of which will be distributed by the new Banijay Rights.

The division also inherits the court case being brought against its parent by FremantleMedia over Banijay gameshow All Against 1.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated that Banijay had removed all references to the Zodiak name from its operating units. The company, however, retains Zodiak Kids, Banijay Zodiak Nordic, Zodiak Belgium and Zodiak Nederland.