Banijay’s Marco Bassetti and Jeff Zucker on Officially Completing Their $8 Billion All3Media Merger

It’s a done deal. RedBird IMI and Banijay have completed their $8 billion merger, led by Jeff Zucker and Marco Bassetti, respectively.

With the Euro regulatory process wrapped, together they will run the production-distribution behemoth, which is headquartered in London and publicly traded. The merger brings together Banijay’s stable of hit shows and formats, including “Peaky Blinders” and “Big Brother,” with All3Media‘s, which span “The Traitors” and “Undercover Boss.”

It was only two years ago that RedBird IMI acquired All3Media from Warner Bros. Discovery and Liberty Global. Banijay considered putting in a bid but ultimately refrained. Now, a year after Bassetti and Zucker first discussed joining forces, Bassetti will lead the new entity, called Banijay Entertainment, with Zucker as chair and All3Media’s CEO Jane Turton joining as deputy CEO.

In a call with Variety, shortly after it was revealed the deal had closed, Zucker confirmed the All3Media name is set to be retired. He and Bassetti also spoke on how they plan to target around $60 million in synergies and what’s next for the newly minted company.

Congratulations on closing the deal. Did the regulatory process move quicker than or about the same as you’d imagined?

MARCO BASSETTI: Well, maybe a little bit [quicker than] what we expected, but we were always more or less on this time[line] that’s a little bit less than six months. So maybe we anticipated a few [more] weeks. But it was not so difficult, it was pretty much bureaucratic stuff than a regulatory issue. Just some approval from different countries where we are operating, because we are operating in so many countries, we have to ask permission in these countries.

Let’s talk about your roles. Jeff, you’re chair, with Marco as CEO and Jane as deputy CEO. How is everyone differentiating your roles, especially with Marco and Jane?

BASSETTI: I think that due to the size and the geography of this company, we have space for more than one CEO and deputy CEO, so there is not an issue. We will operate all together and we make the big decisions with Jane, Jeff, and me.

Jane created all this business here in the U.K., so there will be a moment of transition, and then it will operate in the [same way as the] other English-speaking language [companies]. There’s a lot of stuff to be done in digital, in distribution, in live, in sport. So I think that there is space for everybody here, and Jeff will be chair of the board, and we’ll make any decision with him.

JEFF ZUCKER: I’ll just add, because I think it’s hard for Marco to speak about himself, but the reality is this is an enormous company, the largest independent production company in the world, and we’re incredibly fortunate to have Marco at the helm and to have Jane with us as well. The reality is I think you would be hard pressed to find a more experienced and more strategic and better leadership team anywhere in media, and so that’s one of the things that as shareholders we have great confidence in.

Why did you decide to headquarter the company in London?

BASSETTI: Even before this merger, we were always debating about if you have to move from Paris to London, because London is the European capital of this business. It’s a company where, by far, there’s the biggest investment in our industry, plenty of talent, and after the combination of the company, the U.K. will become our biggest country, so it makes a lot of sense to move here. I’m talking from my new London office, I’ve been here two days, it’s very nice, by the way, with a fantastic view. So, I’m very happy to move here, and also the rest of the team that is moving here from Paris or from Amsterdam, they’re very happy to be here. London is the city with the biggest media community in Europe, and it’s also the place where there is the European office of Apple TV and many other big streamers, so it makes a lot of sense to be here.

Marco, are you relocating here or are you going to be commuting from Paris?

BASSETTI: I will commute. But it’s very simple from Paris.

Indeed, it’s just a quick train ride. Is the All3Media name officially retired?

ZUCKER: It is.

Now the merger is complete, what’s next? Where will things change and where will they stay the same?

BASSETTI: Well, first of all, we need to digest the merger — that’s very important — and keep running the company and deliver the synergy that we announced. But we have a clear strategic plan, how to move on on the next three years, growing our business as usual, production, fiction and unscripted, but also we would like to grow in other businesses where we are very active, like live, digital, sport, and we have a plan to grow organically and maybe non-organically as well in this area, and that’s where our next focus will be.

Marco, I understand you’re very interested in live media. How will this merger power up your offering?

BASSETTI: Banijay alone was making 3000 live events per year. It was great. We did the opening ceremony for the World Cup in the U.S., and the final one also… so we are very active on this space. We just launched the “Black Mirror” VR Experience in New York. We’ll also do Toronto and China, so we are super active in this space. We believe that having so many big IP like “Peaky Blinders,” “Black Mirror,” “The Traitors” — we are going to be in a theater with “Traitors” next year – “MasterChef,” we are studying what we could do with “MasterChef,” we are working to launch a boot camp for “Survivor,” so we have plenty opportunities with our IP on this space, and that’s an area we would like to grow in the coming year, and it’s a big opportunity for us.

I understand there’s a synergy target of around $60 million – are there plans to divest subsidiary companies at the moment?

BASSETTI: We are not doing any synergy for our creative and production part, because we believe that we have to continue to act with our 170 companies. Let’s see if maybe we’ll do somewhere, but basically I’d say most of the synergy will come from saving from leasing, renting and support function… We want to invest this amount of money in order to create new IP, because that’s the other big opportunity that we have with all the talent that there is already in the company, and we hope that we will attract more in the coming year. We want to be a natural consolidator for talent. We would like to be the home of talent in the coming years, so that is going to be our plan. We hope that we can deliver our synergy in 12 months, but we also need to invest if we want to achieve our target in the coming year.

Are you looking at headcount as part of that?

BASSETTI: Maybe there will be some head count, but mainly in the support function, that’s what I’d say.

Are there plans to acquire any more companies?

BASSETTI: Well we always have our eyes open to see if there are opportunities in the market, for sure. For us, it’s important. For instance, if there is good IP, opportunities to create new IP — you have to consider that we have 25 countries. As soon as we have a good IP, we have opportunity to monetize this IP in 25 countries exclusively for a channel… So definitely that could be something that we will keep looking at, like we have in the past. But there will be other opportunities, maybe in digital sport and live that we will pursue if there is an opportunity. But we will always be very disciplined in the pricing, so we don’t want to overspend.

Are you considering ITV Studios now it’s being spun-off from ITV?

ZUCKER: What I would say on that front is, look, today is day one of this new company, and we have work to do to bring these two companies together. But I do think in the years ahead we will look to be opportunistic and to continue to go where the industry is going, and so I don’t want to rule anything in or out, but we do feel that given our scale that we have now, we feel we’re in very good shape today, and we’ll look for other opportunities as they come up.

Given the size of Banijay Entertainment now, how will you reassure independent producers that such a huge distributor can look after their projects with individual attention?

BASSETTI: I think for a small producer we are an opportunity for them, because we will have more leverage, more opportunity, when pricing our stuff. And, as usual, we are not just distributing our own stuff, we’re distributing also third-party stuff. So for the small producers, our distribution arm will be an opportunity to monetize and to create more value for them. It could be an opportunity for us as well, because we are going to take a commission from them, but for sure there is space for them if they want to come to us and let us distribute their stuff.

Talking about consolidation more generally, with Sky buying ITV and the Warner Brothers and Paramount merger, are you concerned about the media landscape?

ZUCKER: This is the reality of the world we live in today, and the entertainment space is changing rapidly, and one of the things you need to compete in that is scale, and that’s one of the reasons that that we’ve done this today, and we feel very comfortable and confident in our position in that space, and one of the reasons that we’ll continue to think about what comes next.

BASSETTI: I think that Jeff is totally right. We’re looking which could be the next, but I believe that consolidation could mean in some way a little bit more concern, but in some cases can make, which I hope will be the case of Paramount-Warner, more chances to have a better business model and to commission more from the market, so there is consolidation that can grow the market and not the other way round.