Banijay, Zodiak discuss merger

International production giants Banijay Group and Zodiak Media are in talks over a merger as the latest wave of consolidation continues to sweep the global TV business.

Zodiak Media CEO
Marc-Antoine D’Halluin

The two companies, each of which owns production outfits around the world, are in discussions over a potential union, Banijay confirmed to C21.

The firms have a mutual shareholder in Italian conglomerate De Agostini, which holds a majority stake in Zodiak and a minority stake in Banijay via DEA Capital.

The Banijay Group currently includes such companies as Banijay Productions France, Nordisk Film TV (Denmark, Norway, Sweden), Banijay Studios North America and Keeping Up With the Kardashians producer Bunim/Murray Productions (US).

In January this year it acquired US prodco Stephen David Entertainment, known for factual drama hits such as The Men Who Built America.

Banijay is run by CEO Marco Bassetti, a former president of Endemol, who took the reins in 2013. He has since brought over a number of former colleagues from the Big Brother producer, including David Goldberg and Caroline Baumgard.

Zodiak Media, meanwhile, is headquartered in Paris and owns more than 40 companies operating in 15 countries. It holds the rights to properties such as Wife Swap, The Secret Millionaire, Totally Spies and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

There have been numerous staff changes across the Zodiak Group since international broadcast executive Marc-Antoine D’Halluin replaced David Frank as CEO of Zodiak Media.

Those to have left the company in the past year include Karen Vermeulen and Nigel Pickard, who has since joined former Zodiak Rights CEO Matthew Frank and his brother David at their start-up, which launched last year.

This came four years after Zodiak acquired production and distribution company RDF Media Group, which David Frank founded more than 20 years ago, for £150m (US$253.4m).

Both companies boast large catalogues of formats and scripted programming that is sold around the world by their distribution outfits, Banijay International and Zodiak Rights, headed up by Emmanuelle Namiech and Tim Mutimer respectively.

Combining the two entities – a possibility first reported by UK trade magazine Broadcast – would follow in the footsteps of the recent merger between Endemol, Shine and Core Media to create Endemol Shine Group, the biggest independent production group in the TV business.

The move, orchestrated by 21st Century Fox and Apollo Global Management last year, kept up the trend for mega-mergers in the global business in 2014 and came after Discovery and Liberty Global took over UK-based All3Media.

Zodiak declined to comment.