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Global Bulletin: WarnerMedia restructures EMEA leadership teams
MUMBAI: New WarnerMedia France and Benelux, Germany-Austria-Switzerland country manager Iris Knobloch has restructured her leadership teams across EMEA.
Olivier Snanoudj, Eric Broet, Caroline Lang, Guillaume Coffin and Gregory Schuber will resume leadership positions for France and Benelux, with Willi Geike, Steffen Schier, Peter Schauerte, Sylvia Rothblum, Matthias Heinze and Tim van Dyk assuming leadership responsibilities for GAS.
Snanoudj and Schier will overlook theatrical distribution for the France and Benelux and GAS markets, respectively, while Lang will head TV distribution for France and French-speaking territories with Rothblum seeing the same responsibilities for GAS and Israel.
Home entertainment and consumer products in each region will consolidate under one leadership, handled by Broet along with the support of Yves Elalouf and Jérôme Ollagnier. Schauerte will oversee home entertainment and consumer products for GAS, supported by Veronika Tiedemann and Stefan Hausberg.
Schuber and van Dyk will look after the marketing teams in the two territories including publicity, franchise management and data. Geike, who last worked on the position of country manager, will now head the company’s local theatrical production for GAS. Broet will supervise local theatrical production for France and Benelux.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros TV Production UK Group company Twenty Twenty has appointed James O’Reilly as its new creative director. He will report to managing director Leanne Klein and work out of the company’s newly established Bristol offices which will serve as the company’s headquarters starting in 2021.
O’Reilly will be responsible for overseeing the creation and production of new original content for the company’s slate, and to manage the company’s existing catalogue of ongoing series. He joins the company after more than a decade at Blast! Films, serving as creative director for the last four years.
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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.
