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DEVELOPMENT SLATE

What the world’s producers, platforms and channels are developing.

How Banijay Kids & Family is bucking the commissioning downturn

Benoît Di Sabatino, CEO of Banijay Kids & Family, discusses the company’s upcoming slate of content and ambitions as it looks to bring new IP and talent into the business.

Benoît Di Sabatino

Talk of commissioning cuts and lack of funding might be plaguing the content industry, but Banijay Kids & Family, the youth arm of European powerhouse Banijay, is hitting record levels of production.

The company, whose production labels are behind the likes of Mr. Bean: The Animated Series and Mumfie, has a huge 16 projects on its current slate.

The most-recently announced project is a live-action adaptation of animated kids’ series Totally Spies, which is being developed with Amazon MGM Studios and Will Ferrell’s Gloria Sanchez Productions in the US.

Unlike the animated version, the live-action series is aimed at young adults and will be exec produced by Ferrell, Gloria Sanchez’s head of television Alix Taylor and president Jessica Elbaum and Banijay Kids & Family’s CEO Benoît Di Sabatino.

According to Di Sabatino, the hope is to expand the Totally Spies brand into a live-action franchise that also includes films.

“Young-adult series are in huge demand at the streamers,” Di Sabatino says, referring to shows like Netflix’s Wednesday and Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty. “So Totally Spies is the perfect fit,” he adds, noting that since the animated series first came out 25 years ago, the IP’s original fans are now adults.

Additionally, the series’ protagonists are women, which Di Sabatino says fulfills a need by the streamers for live-action programmes with a ‘girl power’ theme.

Totally Spies is being developed with Amazon MGM Studios

The animated Totally Spies series, produced by Banijay’s Zodiak Kids & Family France, returned to screens for the first time in 11 years last May, with its season seven debut on M6 Group’s children’s channel Gulli in France.

The new season’s launch was a huge success, helping Gulli achieve its best May ratings in 14 years, and reaching up to 40% of four-to 10-year-olds week-on-week in France. It is also the leading show on TNT (digital television) and the second nationally among the under-50s.

Outside of France, season seven will launch across EMEA, Latin America and the US in the coming months via Warner Bros Discovery (WBD)’s channels and platforms.

Last month, Gulli and WBD greenlit an eighth season of the series, and Di Sabatino expects further season commissions to come as Banijay Kids & Family works on a consumer products strategy for the IP.

Also in the works are a video game, magazines, books, audiobooks and a webtoon, the latter of which is being made in partnership with Média-Participations’ Belgian publisher Editions Dupuis.

Elsewhere on Banijay Kids & Family’s current slate is the fourth season of Mr Bean: The Animated Series, produced by Tiger Aspect Kids & Family for WBD and ITVX in the UK, and new series MiniHeroes of the Forest, coproduced by Banijay Kids & Family’s Italian label Movimenti Production and Zodiak Kids & Family France for pubcasters Rai in Italy and France Télévisions.

Chimera Keepers is in production for France Télévisions and RTBF and VRT in Belgium

Another new series is Super Happy Magic Forest, coproduced by Tiger Aspect Kids & Family, Zodiak Kids & Family France, Monello Productions and Movimenti Production for Italy’s Rai, the BBC in the UK, ZDF in Germany, Canal+ France and ABC in Australia.

Also from Monello Productions are Froggie, which is being produced for Gulli and Spanish pubcaster RTVE, and Chimera Keepers: Adventures of Incredible Creatures, for France Télévisions and RTBF and VRT in Belgium.

Di Sabatino says Banijay Kids & Family will continue looking to acquire production companies to add to its portfolio of labels, in order to bring new and diverse IP and talent into the business.

The company’s focus for the next few years will be on acquiring new IP and talent, M&A and developing a 360 strategy for its brands. It is also making moves in the FAST space, with Banijay’s distribution arm Banijay Rights recently announcing a FAST channel for Mr Bean: The Animated Series.

Meanwhile, Banijay Kids & Family is increasing its presence on digital and social media platforms, by self-publishing content on Amazon, Meta and TikTok, as well as its ZeeKay channels on YouTube.

According to Di Sabatino, the company’s portfolio now generates over 130 million monthly views across Amazon, Meta, TikTok, YouTube and FAST, and has hit nearly 85 billion minutes streamed on major platforms.

The exec says: “Developments for the future will be around [acquiring/developing new] IP and talent, which could come from M&A but also organically as the company grows. We will invest a lot in marketing, consumer products and digital to maximise the exploitation of our different brands, but also to support broadcasters worldwide.”


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