Arthur Essebag to receive International Formats Gold Award at Mipcom
Arthur Essebag is to receive the 2023 International Formats Business Gold Award at Mipcom next month.
Arthur Essebag
Essebag is one France’s best-known TV hosts and, as an entrepreneur, a leader in the development of the French unscripted sector since the 1990s. He is also founder of producer Satisfaction Group.
He said: “I’m delighted to have been awarded the International Formats Business Gold Award 2023. Being the first French producer to receive it means a lot – it indeed sheds light not only on Satisfaction Group but also on all independent producers who strive to bring to the market the most original and disruptive formats. This award comes at a time when our group is successfully expanding across the world.”
Essebag is known for hosting comedy shows and TF1 stalwarts Ce Soir Avec Arthur and Vendredi, Tout est Permis Avec Arthur.
In the 1990s, he went into business with Stéphane Courbit – now Banijay Group’s chairman – to create what became the foundation for Endemol France, before leaving to launch his own indie, Satisfaction, in 2010.
Satisfaction Group now produces more than 1,000 hours of TV every year and has a strong library of formats following its acquisition of the French operations of Sony Pictures Television (SPT) in 2020, including Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and Dragons’ Den in France, which sit alongside its own creations such as Divided and Liar Liar.
The group owns a roster of French production companies including Ah Production, Enibas, Ellimac, La Grosse Equipe, Factual Factory and Alef One.
Satisfaction has also struck strategic joint-venture agreements with major players in the unscripted space. These include: John de Mol’s Talpa Network, giving Satisfaction access to the Dutch company’s formats in France; and Fulwell 73, after Satisfaction launched the UK firm’s Visual Suspect format on TF1.
Earlier this year, the company also took a stake in Yes Yes Media, the unscripted UK/US production company launched by TV host Richard Bacon.
The International Formats Business Gold award is given annually by C21, FRAPA, EMC and Mipcom Cannes to executives who have made an outstanding contribution to the formats business.
Previous recipients of the prestigious Gold Award are:
2022: Wonwoo Park, creator of The Masked Singer
2021: Anette Rømer, STV Production
2020: Wayne Garvie, Sony Pictures Television
2019: Peter Fincham, Expectation Entertainment
2018: Alex Mahon, Channel 4
2017: Paul Gilbert, CBS Studios International
2016: Gary Carter, KLOK
2015: Annie Wegelius, former SVT programming chief
2014: Mark Itkin, William Morris Endeavor
2013: Stephen Lambert, Studio Lambert/All3Media
2012: David Lyle, Fox Reality
2011: Dick de Rijk, creator of gameshow hit Deal or No Deal
2010: Reg Grundy, former CEO of Grundy Television
2009: Peter Bazalgette, former creative director of Endemol Group
2008: Stephen Leahy and Trish Kinane, Ludus Entertainment
2007: Merv Griffin, creator of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy
