Variety<\/em> at Banijay\u2019s headquarters in Paris, located in the posh 8th arrondissement, right off of the Champs Elysees.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tIndeed, while some other big media groups, such as ITV and Fremantle, have battled the industry\u2019s headwinds in the last couple years, Banijay Entertainment, whose parent company Banijay Group is listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange, has been delivering strong numbers.
Second-quarter results showed that revenue was up 3% from 2024 at \u20ac1.13 billion, with half-year revenue of \u20ac1.42 billion, and an adjusted EBITDA that was up 6% to
\u20ac208 million.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile the competition among the major media groups in Europe can be ferocious, Bassetti has earned the respect of his peers. Jane Turton, All3Media CEO, says, \u201cMarco and I have known each other for many years and, over that time, he has been a fierce and competitive rival and a hugely respected friend.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe is passionate about television, unbelievably knowledgeable and irritatingly successful!\u201d Turton says.<\/p>\n
\n\tTarak Ben Ammar, the Franco-Tunisian producer and businessman who runs Italy\u2019s leading independent distribution company Eagle Pictures, describes Bassetti as a \u201cgreat manager whom people trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe is both creative and financially savvy. He reassures the banks, he always has his sights on the markets, and he speaks many languages,\u201d says Ben Ammar, adding that Bassetti\u2019s \u201cbread and butter\u201d is the \u201ccompany\u2019s results, the strategy and relations with television stations around the world that buy their formats and series.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBassetti, who was born near Lake Maggiore in Northern Italy and splits his time between Paris and Rome, learned the ropes of TV production in Milan. Bassetti was studying economics at university when he got into the industry \u201cby coincidence, not by choice,\u201d landing a job at commercial channel Antenna 3 in Northern Italy, one of Europe\u2019s first private TV stations, through a school friend. The initial incentive for Bassetti was financial, but within a year, he says he \u201cgot to do every job\u201d one could do in TV, working on big entertainment shows. \u201cI started as a studio assistant, then I did mixing and videos and then I was a director\u2019s assistant, then I directed, then I produced,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAlways at the right place at the right time, Bassetti\u2019s career took off in the late 1980s when Rete Quattro, the TV network he was working for, and ABC struck a deal. He found himself paired with Steve Carlin, the TV producer and creator of \u201cThe $64,000 Question,\u201d to come up with new entertainment formats. (Carlin died in 2003.)<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThey said, \u2018Just stay close to Steve Car\u00adlin. You speak English, you know how to create formats,\u2019 so I did. I worked for him for two or three years as a producer,\u201d says Bassetti, adding that Carlin \u201cgave [him] a lot of intel about what was going on in the U.S., which was so much bigger than any other European or Italian market.\u201d He also learned the importance of having a strong producer\u2019s vision behind a format. Carlin \u201ccame in with an American mentality,\u201d says Bassetti, because he considered the executive producer as the boss, \u201cwhereas in Italy, the real boss is always the director, not the producer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBassetti worked alongside Carlin on the creation of \u201cM\u2019ama non m\u2019ama\u201d (\u201cLove Me, Love Me Not\u201d), which he says \u201cbecame the first dating show at the time in Europe. After a stint at the French channel La Cinq (co-founded by Silvio Berlusconi), Bassetti launched his own production company, La Italiana Produzioni, one of the country\u2019s first independent production companies, at the age of 29. At a time when TV shows were being produced in-house by TV channels, Bassetti ventured off the beaten path by becoming a leading purveyor of light entertainment and game shows in Italy.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnother producer who played a big part in Bassetti\u2019s career is John de Mol, who entered the Italian market with a 5% stake in Bassetti\u2019s two companies, La Italiana Produzioni and Aran. After those two labels were bought by Telefonica, Bassetti and de Mol co-founded Endemol Italy in 1997 and launched, alongside other talented producers such as Courbit, a raft of blockbuster reality TV formats, from \u201cBig Brother\u201d to \u201cDeal or No Deal\u201d and \u201cWho Wants to Be a Millionaire?\u201d which they bought for 13 territories.<\/p>\n
\n\tBassetti got to showcase his diplomacy skills to get \u201cBig Brother\u201d on the air in Italy, a majority Catholic country where the prospect of seeing such an unhinged reality show on local TV ruffled feathers. \u201cNobody wanted to give us money for \u2018Big Brother\u2019 because people viewed it as very, very scandalous,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cThe head of the channel here was very Catholic, so he asked me to go to the cardinal. The meeting was funny because the cardinal was a kind of mentor who spoke like 10 languages and read every single newspaper, including the Wall Street Journal,\u201d Bassetti reminisces. \u201cSo I tried to explain to him that there was nothing too pornographic in \u2018Big Brother\u2019 \u2026 and in the end the cardinal gave us his blessing!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBassetti, who worked as managing director and then president of Endemol Italy until May 2004, says he and the \u201cvery strong producers\u201d he was working with then \u201clearned how to share creativity to protect formats.\u201d \u201cWe were the benchmark,\u201d he continues. The exec then returned to Endemol Group as chief operating officer in 2007 and was appointed president and CEO a couple of years later, before finally stepping down in 2012 and joining Banijay.<\/p>\n
\n\tBassetti says his years as an indie producer paved the way for how the business works today, with third-party producers making content for international TV channels and streamers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhat was pioneering is that we understood then that as independent producers, there was an opportunity to create value and put shows together with other companies around the world,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was clear that the creativity could come from outside the big TV stations. And if you look today, all the big shows are created by production companies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBassetti says the biggest challenge for producers and TV networks is to come up with new ideas. \u201cI don\u2019t see any other \u2018Big Brother,\u2019 \u2018Millionaire\u2019 or \u2018Deal or No Deal,\u2019\u201d he points out.<\/p>\n
\n\tBesides helping to deliver those formats, Bassetti\u2019s most notable achievement is the successful integration of Endemol Shine into Banijay, a move that many feared \u2014 or hoped \u2014 would fail. Banijay bought Endemol Shine in a 2020 $2.2 billion deal to become the largest non-U.S. player in the market, with a catalog surpassing that of BBC Studios and ITV Studios.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cA lot of people were unhappy to see two independent companies join and become so big, because that makes us more difficult to screw,\u201d Bassetti says with a smile. \u201cBut building scale was essential. When you create something big with a lot of IP, you need to have leverage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe says the industry was also skeptical about Banijay\u2019s capacity to create value with Endemol because the latter had failed to do so through its merger with Shine. But Bassetti had a big advantage: he already knew Endemol inside out.<\/p>\n
\n\tConvincing the financial partners to back the deal was a big challenge, says Bassetti. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t an easy task at all to go into the market as a French company and go for a giant like Endemol Shine, which was not in the most healthy situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tLooking back, Bassetti says Banijay \u201cgot lucky because the timing was right.\u201d The deal closed right before the pandemic lockdown in 2020. Now, he says, it\u2019s a tough market for consolidation. \u201cYou need to have less risk, to know how to save cost,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\n\tBassetti also shot down rumors of Banijay courting ITV Studios and says the company is looking for talent partnerships rather than company acquisitions, including in the U.S.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe M&A market is not a priority for us today. We are happy where we are, and I believe that we have the right size and the right people in charge,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\n\tLooking ahead, Bassetti wants to grow Banijay\u2019s output in movies, predicting a resurgence in popularity for films. Last year, Banijay delivered \u201cDiamanti,\u201d which turned out to be one of Italy\u2019s highest-grossing films of 2024. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing much more demand for movies, and I think there\u2019s been too many series repeating the same stories and stretching plots, so there will be a readjustment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBut Banijay isn\u2019t going to go big on theatrical, he notes, because the company isn\u2019t interested in changing its business model.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile maintaining its core business in TV content, Banijay has diversified into live events and sports in recent years with much success. Live experiences were a significant source of growth for the banner during the first six months of 2025, bringing in \u20ac173 million, a 15.4% year-on-year increase.<\/p>\n
\n\tBassetti says the company, which is now the owner of live entertainment group Balich Wonder Studios, global marketing group Independents and Lotchi, creator of immersive entertainment \u201cLuminescence,\u201d will continue building that strategy to create more value around its IP and tap into growing demand for live and immersive experiences.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cA few years ago, we decided to not just be the production company, but a media company. That meant we needed to create content around our IP. I think it would be a missed opportunity if we didn\u2019t create a \u2018Survivor\u2019 camp, a \u2018Black Mirror\u2019 VR experience or live events based on \u2018Peaky Blinders\u2019 or \u2018MasterChef,\u2019 for instance,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe don\u2019t just want to be licensor of our IP but also operate them, with IP-based events,\u201d Bassetti says, adding \u201cbut also to attract other IP holders who want to create similar live experiences.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tSports events are another area where Banijay Entertainment is carving out a lucrative niche. Bassetti says he\u2019s seeing a \u201cgrowing appetite for content surrounding major sporting events, such as highlights and documentaries.\u201d The potential market is substantial, he says. \u201cInvestments in sports rights reached \u20ac60 billion, assuming 10% could be for producing related content, it would already be a big chunk!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBassetti is also keeping a tab on the rise of the creator economy, which he views as \u201can opportunity rather than a challenge.\u201d \u201cBefore, commissioners wanted people coming from the movie world \u2026 and now streamers want creators from YouTube,\u201d he says with a chuckle, adding that \u201cit\u2019s always been part of our strategy to bring in new people on board.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Banijay Entertainment boss Marco Bassetti, who will be honored with the Variety Vanguard Award at the Mipcom confab, lets his track record do the talking, and would rather discuss profit margins and business than accolades. Always speaking calmly with a polite smile and a distinct Italian accent, Bassetti could easily be described as an iron […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2071902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[388368,306423,388369,388370],"class_list":["post-2071901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-banijay","tag-big-brother","tag-marco-bassetti","tag-stephane-courbit"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Banijays-Marco-Bassetti-on-Leveraging-Hit-Franchises-and-Live-Events.webp.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2071901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2071901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2071901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2071903,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2071901\/revisions\/2071903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2071902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2071901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2071901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2071901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}