Fiction
Applause Entertainment bags rights for three Armoza series
MUMBAI: Content and IP creation studio Applause Entertainment has now taken the local rights to three of Armoza Formats’ scripted series: the highly acclaimed crime-thriller Hostages and hilarious comedies La Famiglia and Honey Badgers.
Produced by Yetzira Ivrit, Hostages is an intense psychological crime-thriller that follows a renowned surgeon about to perform a routine operation on the president. But there is nothing routine about it when her family is taken hostage and she is ordered to sabotage the procedure and kill the President–or her family will die. As viewers follow the battle to save both her family and the president, they are taken on a journey where all are fighting for their survival.
Applause Entertainment CEO Sameer Nair said, “We are most excited to be adapting these Armoza shows for India. I have been a big fan of Israeli content as our countries have a close cultural affinity and I believe stories like ‘Hostages’, ‘La Famiglia’ and ‘Honey Badgers’ are incredibly universal. Writing, casting and production on all three shows is already underway and filming should commence soon.”
Produced by United Studios of Israel, La Famiglia follows the lives of a perfectly normal suburban family living in the divorce capital of the country. With many reasons to be happy, they have even more reasons to go to therapy–their sex life, his best friend, her complaints, and his mother. Their therapy sessions provide the entertaining basis for the series, through which we flashback to the comical, stand-alone scenes from their daily life. Each episode is a new therapy session in which they bring up the most embarrassing, bizarre, awkward and insane moments that are a part of every family’s life.
Applause Entertainment is a content and IP creation studio with a focus on films, digital series, television, animation, music and live events. Whereas, Armoza formats is established in 2005, is the key player in the international content market and an independent creators and distributors of global content.
Armoza Formats CEO Avi Armoza, “As we continue to expand our scripted and ready-made series catalogues, we are thrilled that Applause Entertainment, a highly acclaimed creative house, has chosen to take three of our top scripted series to be adapted in one of the most important content arenas in the world.”
Honey Badgers, produced by Naor Zion and originally aired on Reshet’s Channel 2, follows the lives of four small-town friends who change their identities to get jobs at one of the world’s top financial firms. They will fake it all to appear more sophisticated and achieve their fantasy of opening up their own investment company.
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Fiction
Banijay merges with All3Media in $6.65 billion deal
Marco Bassetti will lead the combined company as CEO
PARIS: Six years after acquiring Endemol Shine at the height of the pandemic, Banijay has struck again. The European production heavyweight is merging with All3Media in a deal that will create a television titan with $6.65 billion in revenue and redraw the contours of a fast-consolidating market.
The combined company will trade under the Banijay name and be owned 50 per cent each by Banijay Group and RedBird IMI, which acquired All3Media in 2024. The transaction is expected to close by autumn, subject to regulatory approvals.
Banijay Entertainment CEO Marco Bassetti, will take the top job at the enlarged group. All3Media CEO Jane Turton becomes deputy CEO. RedBird IMI CEO Jeff Zucker will serve as chairman.
The logic is scale. Broadcasters are commissioning less, streamers are tightening budgets and global buyers are fewer but bigger. Against that backdrop, heft matters. The merged entity will generate roughly $6.65 billion in revenues based on 2024 figures, giving it sharper elbows in rights negotiations and deeper pockets for franchise-building.
“Entrepreneurialism, ambition and creativity” remain core to Banijay’s DNA, Bassetti said, flagging plans to invest more heavily in new intellectual property, live events and emerging platforms. Turton struck a similarly bullish note, pointing to All3Media’s journey from a 2003 start-up to a global supplier of hit formats and high-end drama.
Between them, the two groups control a formidable slate. Banijay’s catalogue spans MasterChef, Big Brother, Survivor, Black Mirror, Peaky Blinders and Deal or No Deal. All3Media’s labels include Studio Lambert, producer of The Traitors and Squid Game: The Challenge; Two Brothers, behind The Tourist; and Neal Street, currently producing the forthcoming Beatles biopics directed by Sam Mendes for Sony.
The back catalogue is equally muscular. Banijay Rights holds some 220,000 hours, while All3Media International adds around 35,000 hours, forming one of the industry’s largest libraries.
Banijay, controlled by French entrepreneur Stéphane Courbit and listed in Amsterdam, counts more than 130 production companies across 25 territories. All3Media operates over 40 labels, with strong positions in the UK, US and Germany. The enlarged group will also lean into live entertainment, building on Banijay’s Balich Wonder Studio, which produced the opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, and the Independents.
The deal marks a shift in tone. As recently as October, Bassetti suggested that mergers and acquisitions were not a priority. But the drumbeat of consolidation has grown louder. Mediawan has moved for Peter Chernin’s North Road. David Ellison’s Paramount has agreed to a $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros, with plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount plus. ITV has explored selling its media and entertainment arm to Comcast-owned Sky, though talks have reportedly slowed.
