Banijay CEO Marco Bassetti has stressed the importance of producers and talent retaining a share of ownership of projects and has criticised global streamers’ approach to rights.
In a keynote interview at Mipcom, Bassetti said: “It’s not fair to ask a talent or creative and say ‘give me everything’ and when it’s successful, he isn’t part of it.”
“If you want to continue to create value, it is smart to leave part of the value creation to the talent and producer,” he said, comparing similar systems in the music and publishing worlds.
The European production and distribution powerhouse currently boasts more than 130,000 hours of IP and 120 labels spanning 22 countries. Its proposed acquisition of Australia’s Beyond would see 8,000 more hours of content added its slate.
Bassetti explained that operating on such a large scale is key to the group’s strategy.
“Scale is important. To have scale means to have leverage. It means having legacy IP. It means connecting talent all together. It means having opportunities in all the territories where we are working,” he said, adding: “Being part of a big group means more opportunity. We have IP that our clients need to have on the screen, we can offer so many new shows that nobody else can offer. We can give our talent opportunities to reduce cost.”
The company is showcasing its size and scale in Cannes with a massive two-story stand directly in front of the Palais and a team of more than 200 staffers and talent in town for the market.
Where possible, Banijay likes to hold on to programme rights to build up its library of IP. Bassetti said: “We try to defend as much as possible the model that allowed us to grow. We prefer to give up some margins but retain some rights. It’s crucial for us.” He said this approach was beneficial for Banijay’s producer competitors too: “It will be good for everybody, not just for us, if we can stick more to the European model.”
Bassetti predicts that “in 5-10 years, IP and talent will be the most important thing in order to create value and that’s what we are doing now.
“I believe there will be more consolidation. We have everything we need in order to grow.”
Bassetti said that for a public company worth “over 3 billion Euros,” “the most important thing is to keep our DNA. It’s important not to lose this DNA, our flexibility, our agility and always providing the best home for our talent.”
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