French media production company Banijay Group, widely known for owning the “Big Brother” franchise, is reportedly in talks with RedBird IMI, the owner of All3Media, to merge their television production businesses, Reuters reported, citing sources who are aware of the matter.
The potential deal would mark the latest consolidation move in the legacy television industry as producers seek greater scale and broader content libraries to compete with streaming giants.
The talks between the two companies heavily focus on combining Banijay’s Entertainment & Live unit, which also owns “MasterChef”, with All3Media, the producer of hit TV series “The Traitors”, the agency report said.
If this merger is finalised, it would create one of Europe’s largest production groups, bringing together a vast and diverse slate of popular shows such as “Survivor”, “Peaky Blinders” and “Race Across the World”.
Firms aim to build scale and power
Both companies have sought potential tie-ups with other producers in recent years, as legacy television and film production firms aim to build scale and power against the growing dominance of streaming giants such as Netflix, Disney and Amazon Prime Video.
A potential deal would likely include All3Media and owner RedBird IMI, injecting funds into the combined entity, as they represent the smaller of the two sides, the agency report suggested.
The talks started towards the end of last year after Amsterdam-listed Banijay dropped its pursuit of Britain’s ITV Studios, and are now at an advanced stage, the sources told Reuters.
However, the people aware of the development also stated that no agreement has been reached yet, adding that there is no certainty a deal will be finalised by both parties ultimately, Reuters reported.
All about the deal
The emerging joint entity would generate roughly 5.7 billion euros ($6.65 billion), based on 2024 numbers published by the companies. Seperately, Banijay had a market capitalisation of 3.42 billion euros as of Monday’s close, according to data from LSEG.
As per previous reports, All3Media and Banijay have also discussed combinations with ITV’s studio business. ITV has since started talks to sell its broadcast division to Comcast-owned Sky, a deal that, if agreed, would leave a standalone ITV Studios unit.
Banijay had earlier explored making a binding offer to acquire All3Media in 2023 from its then joint owners, Liberty Global and Warner Bros Discovery, Reuters reported at the time.
RedBird IMI is led by former CNN executive Jeff Zucker, and it is also heavily backed by Emirati royal Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who went on to buy All3Media for 1.15 billion pounds ($1.55 billion) in 2024.
In a separate development, RedBird Capital, which is RedBird IMI’s US-based partner, is backing Paramount Skydance’s $108.4 billion bid for Warner Bros Discovery. However, the revised bid was rejected by Warner Bros last week as it decided on sticking with streaming giant Netflix.
