ANNECY: Benoit Di Sabatino, CEO of Banijay Kids & Family, outlines his company’s priorities for this week at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and MIFA market, offering a glimpse at Banijay’s product pipeline and his thoughts on the big issues facing animators, such as tightening budgets.
Benoit Di Sabatino
What are your main objectives at Annecy this year?
We have a fantastic new slate of shows to share with buyers alongside our existing catalogue of long-running, evolving brands like Totally Spies! and Mr Bean, and emerging hits like Super Happy Magic Forest and MiniHeroes of the Forest. The conference always serves as a brilliant opportunity to connect with the international animation community, while getting a gauge on the market, trends and what the competitors are up to.
What is the biggest issue facing the animation industry?
Funding is probably the single biggest challenge facing our industry, and that’s not specific to animation. In the animation sector, and particularly in the children’s content space, we’re navigating tighter budgets than ever before. This financial pressure often leads commissioners and buyers to become increasingly risk averse. However, there are ways to meet these challenges, whether it’s through strategic partnerships, collaboration or utilising available incentives.
Banijay Kids & Family is organised around talented producers based in the main European countries, which are contributing to funding with tax incentive policies (France, UK, Italy) and our distribution team gives us access to a large global pre-financing network. Having well-established IP is also a major advantage, as this can feel like a safer choice for clients, and being part of a bigger group, with heavyweight distribution capabilities and a large geographical footprint, allows us to leverage our reputation and scale to minimise risk on projects.
Tiger Aspect Kids & Family is onboard to coproduce Stan & Gran
Where do you see the biggest opportunity in the animation sector at the moment?
Diversifying your business model and making the most of new, complementary growth opportunities is more important than ever. Not only can it bring in additional revenues, but these significantly reinforce brand awareness across multiple touchpoints, increasing the potential for long-term success. With this in mind, we are working closely with Banijay Live to develop immersive experiences based on our IP, offering a wonderful opportunity for Banijay Kids & Family to bring our brands to life.
With so many ways to connect to audiences, the opportunity to build a global brand has never been more open, and by working hand-in-hand with all your production and broadcast partners, there is a huge opportunity to amplify your IP and deepen your offering. Great ideas still find a way through, and we’re very open to working with partners and supporting on projects we are passionate about to ensure a diverse and competitive portfolio with significant reach.
How can animation companies survive and thrive during a period of economic instability?
The animation industry has proven itself to be pretty resilient during periods of economic uncertainty. I would say partnering and coproducing is no longer a luxury but most of the time a necessity to get ideas off the ground and on screen. Equally important is ongoing investment in your brands and audiences to build long-term brand equity, ultimately strengthening your market position to create ongoing value that is better equipped to withstand industry shifts. The major upheaval that we will all have to face, at every level of our industry and life, is technological and civilisational. AI is like winter – it’s coming! But it does present huge opportunities for the industry, if utilised responsibly.
Piripenguins from Eaglet Films and Red Monk Studios
What new shows are coming down the line on which you’re particularly focused?
We have the upcoming Stan & Gran, which, in addition to representing the distribution rights to, we recently confirmed the onboarding of Tiger Aspect Kids & Family as coproducer, working alongside Jollywise and Xentrix Studios. The title is an exciting new animation, full of mystery and fun, that has generated significant pre-launch interest. We are also pleased to be representing some brilliant third-party IP such as the new animated kids’ comedy Piripenguins from Eaglet Films, which is a warm and funny series aimed at five- to eight-year-olds.
What have been your most successful shows of the past six months?
Over the last six months we have been fortunate to roll out several new series. Super Happy Magic Forest debuted new episodes on CBBC and iPlayer following strong results for the first episodes which aired last year, and it has also enjoyed successful launches around the world with the likes of Rai, ABC Australia and Canal+, with more markets to follow.
New episodes of Super Happy Magic Forest debuted on CBBC and iPlayer
MiniHeroes of the Forest had a strong launch with Rai and France Télévisions. Plus, we saw the return of Mr Bean to screens 35 years after the live-action debut, with a brand-new fourth season of the animated series for ITVX and Warner Bros Discovery’s channels and streaming services. We have had the successful launch of Totally Spies! season seven with Gulli in France and across Warner Bros Discovery networks and platforms throughout EMEA and the US and Discovery Kids Latin America, as well as a new record-breaking season of Street Football for France Télévisions.
How is the children’s TV industry changing?
One of the biggest changes for our industry has been how we define success, and for me, a key factor in establishing and maintaining global brands is to respond to our shifting audience habits and broaden the ways we interact with them. As a result, we have enjoyed success beyond the screen too, through activations and partnerships across digital, gaming, licensing and events.
We rolled out Totally Spies!-branded trampoline parks across the US, we’ve had two very successful Roblox games for Totally Spies! and Super Happy Magic Forest, and we have a healthy licensing programme for Mr Bean, which is bringing lots of fun products to new markets. We are also in great shape digitally, extending our online communities, reaching around 30 million monthly views through our suite of brand and hub channels.
