Marco Bassetti On Banijay’s Billion-Dollar Scripted Ambition & The International Drama Business: “There Will Be More Risk, But Also More Opportunity”

EXCLUSIVE: As the drama biz convenes in Lille for Series Mania, Marco Bassetti, CEO of Europe-based indie production and distribution heavyweight Banijay Entertainment, tells Deadline about his billion-dollar ambition in scripted.

“I think that we are going to reach close to €1BN [$1.1BN] of business in scripted next year,” Bassetti says in an exclusive interview. “From where we started to where we are today, we are the biggest European producer in scripted. We are happy about what we have done.”

The Banijay boss is referencing a European Audiovisual Observatory report that ranks Banijay as the top independent producer in Europe terms of number of titles with 53 for 2023 (the latest measurement period), and in terms of the number of countries productions are originated in, 11.

Bassetti says there is still space to grow that drama footprint. “If you look at where we stand with our unscripted business, we are pretty big in many countries. I think that we have opportunity to grow more in scripted.”

Looking at the map, he namechecks some countries where he plans to bolster Banijay’s drama business.

“I’m thinking about UK, and there is also more space for us in the French and German markets because we are not big enough there. In Germany, the public channels invest a lot, and the streamers are going to invest a lot of money. Australia is also becoming a big market for us. We produce NCIS Sydney [through Endemol Shine Australia] and CBS is very happy. Italy is becoming a big market for us and Spain as well.”

Banijay’s Endemol Shine America was a producer on Ripleywhich scored 13 Emmy noms and notched four wins, but looking at that world map again, U.S. drama expansion is not a top priority.

“So far, we have not entered the U.S. [scripted] market,” he says. “First of all, you have to compete with the big, big players, and then the business model is different. It’s not a cost-plus model. You have to take a huge risk on the series that you are producing. Big Hollywood studios can take that risk, because of the huge amount of money coming from their libraries. If I look at my peers that did go into the U.S., from what I can see they are not so successful. To be a European company, to go and compete in the U.S. scripted market, is very difficult.”

Total revenue from the content business was up +0.5% to €3.3BN in Banijay’s 2024 financial year. Reporting its annual numbers earlier this month, the company said that Q4 was lifted by the delivery of scripted shows and there is increased demand from streamers. It also, however, acknowledged there are “industry headwinds.”

How does Bassetti plan to drive Banijay’s drama revenues over the billion Euro threshold in the next financial year? Having been among the most active players in terms of M&A, he says the next turn of the wheel is about organic growth.

“From a capital point of view, in terms of investment and the return on investment, maybe today it is better to invest in talent and to buy IP instead of buying companies, and to use the platform we have to give producers more opportunity to make shows.”

Dramatic Trends

The evolution of the drama business favors the big players who can cover costs and keep rights. Fundamentally, the change to the business can summarized thusly: Drama has gotten very expensive. In that environment, the pubcasters and commercial channels are feeling the pinch. Banijay prodcos make the likes of Brocéliande for French commercial net TF1 and special forces drama Rogue Heroes for the BBC, so Bassetti understands the economics.

“A big commercial channel in Europe can’t always afford €1.5M an episode,” he says. “They can maybe afford €1M or €800,000. People need to to take some risks and find money, whether that’s through distribution, pre-selling or co-production. This is the market trend, especially for those outside the [SVOD] platforms, for the commercial and the public broadcasters.

“Having such a big distribution arm and having a big catalog, and being an independent producer with a global reach, gives us the opportunity to take some risk. In some cases, we can fill the gap [in drama budgets]and we have a discussion about this every day. Today, it’s one of the big topics in the scripted business.”

Streamer Deals

Over 20% of Banijay’s TV revenue comes from deals with streaming platforms. Its output for streamers in Europe includes Return to the sabinas for Disney+ in Spain and Here is not Hollywoodwhich was the best launch on Disney+ for an Italian original. Projects for Prime Video include the popular Guilty movies. For Netflix, it has returning Italian drama Lidia Poet and upcoming drama House of Guinness from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, who is also making a Peaky Blinders movie for the streamer.

“We have a dedicated amount of money each year to spend on talent, or book properties or IP, in order, let’s say, to create leverage so that we have more options,” says Bassetti. “We can have, in some cases, more leverage to say: You can have a holdback for five years and then it’s coming back to us, or maybe you have three years for SVOD, but then we can sell the linear.”

He continues: “That will pretty much be the future as well. I don’t think the platforms always need to have all rights now, so why not let us exploit them? On one side, it means they can spend less and still have great shows. On the other, a producer is incentivized to pitch them their best stuff if they know they also have some back end.”

Movie Moves

In Italy, Marco Belardi’s Banijay-backed label GreenBoo scored a hit with Ferzan Özpetek’s comedy drama Diamondswhich grossed over €16M at the domestic box office. Groenlandia, also in Italy, produced films last year including Investigation into a Love Story and The Empire.

Bassetti is not, however, hankering for a moment on the red carpet at Cannes or Venice. He talks about applying the model refined in the world of unscripted TV – this is the company behind Big Brother after all – to scripted. Getting scores of movies into theaters is not a key ambition. “We like to keep certain rights, keep a certain margin, and we are not so keen to go to theatrical and to take that risk and to change the business model,” he says.

Streaming films might be a different matter. Spanish label Pokeepsie is behind the movie adaptations of Mercedes Ron’s Guilty YA novels for Prime Video. Fault yours is the streamer’s most successful international original ever with the final instalment in the trilogy landing later this year.

Live Action

Bassetti is also CEO of Banijay Live, a recently minted unit for live events. Banijay bought France-based Lotchi, which created Luminescence, and Balich Wonder Studio out of Spain, which has organized various Olympic Games ceremonies. “We created Banijay Live to create experience around our brands,” Bassetti says. “Now, we do a Black Mirror experience. Maybe we would do a Peaky Blinders experience in the future.”

At Series Mania, meanwhile, Banijay’s fingerprints are on several events including the opener Lentproduced by its Shine Fiction label for Apple TV+, as well as Alain Goldman’s Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight for Netflix. Elsewhere, James Norton will be on stage to talk about his Banijay-backed prodco Rabbit Track Pictures.

As Deadline’s time with Bassetti comes to an end, he summarizes the reason for focusing on growing the Banijay drama business. “There will be more risk required, but there is also more opportunity for us.”

Industry talent will continue to gravitate to the big groups, the Banijay boss adds, as people seek the resources and backing now required to make high-end series.

“One of the reasons why there was a lot of consolidation, and there will be even more, is because it means you can have broad shoulders, you have a catalog, and you can even use your biggest titles in order to help package your stuff [to buyers]. You have more opportunity to de-risk your investments.”

Put simply, in drama, size matters. “Exactly,” Bassetti says, “it’s about scale.”