Mipcom is on the horizon, focusing everyone’s minds on what’s selling in the global television market.
A key component is obviously formats and particularly how indies create, finance, package and scale new shows.
Innovation in hybrid genres is one trend emerging, as commissioners and producers try to de-risk in the current challenging environment.
Having a mixed portfolio also helps, which Banijay Group obviously has, with its Banijay Entertainment, Banijay Live and Banijay Gaming divisions.
The group has a range of established IP that, within global TV production powerhouse Banijay Entertainment, balances heritage ‘superbrands’ like Big Brother and Survivor with agile formats, some derived from YouTube development/collaborations e.g. All Star Hide and Seek, which rose from Finnish digital creator Roni Bäck’s popular YouTube hide and seek videos.
And others have arisen from fandom culture, such as innovative dating series Date Knight.
Banijay Entertainment has a multi-platform strategy, spanning traditional broadcasters, global streamers and YouTube content and now, following its merger with All3 Media to create the world’s largest indie, it spans 25 countries and has more than 265,000 hours of content, giving it a bird’s-eye view of the industry.
So, ahead of the industry’s autumnal pilgrimage to Cannes, this week we spoke with Banijay Entertainment’s chief creative officer for development James Townley about what the merger means, the future of formats, the latest market trends and how to supercharge ideas.
Read on to find out about:
Mitigating risk with hybrid formats
The appetite for comedy and sports entertainment
Opportunities in brand partnerships and co-productions
Capitalising on the All3 merger and data
Mitigating risk with hybrids
With buyers trying to de-risk as much as possible, in addition to reboots of its trusted hits such as Big Brother, Banijay is creating hybrid shows that combine familiar elements with jeopardy and twists.
Two examples are the culinary brigade battle 100 Knives and historical role-play dating show Date Knight.
The Danish version of 100 Knives has just launched and features 100 chefs from diverse parts of the sector e.g. food trucks to village restaurateurs in a competition that allows brigades to challenge head chefs.
As Banijay Entertainment chief creative officer James Townley explains, the show has “incredible scale, gravitas and jeopardy throughout. Because I think with these new formats you’ve got to have the USP; you’ve got to have that jeopardy that makes those audiences want to come back.”
He thinks “hybrid formats” where you “combine genres”, such as in 100 Knives, mean there is “high stakes reality, camaraderie and huge jeopardy within it that you wouldn’t normally expect in a cooking show...and I think we’re seeing that more and more.”
Meanwhile Date Knight taps into “the appetite for dating formats across the world” combined with the “fandom and community” of live action role play.
Date Knight is “warm and engaging” with a “fantastic cast” plus, with the historical angle it has “a really strong educational element [and] listening to the cast…[and] the confidence they get from being in character really makes it come to life.”
He thinks it is “unique”: “I’ve not really seen anything like this series and when we’ve shown it internally, there’s a huge amount of interest.”
Townley reckons when you are “trying to compete with formats that are as iconic and strong as Traitors, Big Brother, MasterChef “ you have to be “fairly rigorous with the format creation [and] what are those USPs of the format that you feel are going to stand out in the market and capture the imagination.”
He adds: “If you look at Date Knight, it does that. I think it is so endearing and quite clearly there is an incredibly strong community around it.”
Another series Townley has hopes for at Mipcom is a Banijay Italia show, working title Cooking Grandmas, where grandmothers compete against each other.
“Yes, it’s about the food…the challenges [and] their favourite recipe. But it’s also the incredible… conversations that they are all having together. We can all relate to that and it feels again super warm, super endearing”, and will have “the whole family on the sofa watching it.”
Takeaways: blending genres can reduce risk for new formats; tap into existing communities/fandoms for a ready-made audience; “warm” co-family viewing formats are popular
The appetite for comedy and sports entertainment
Hot on the heels of the success of Last One Laughing, produced in the UK by Banijay labels Zeppotron and Initial, Townley thinks there is “huge international appetite” for “comedy entertainment”, but, “not always absolutely straight-down-the-barrel comedy”.
“We’re thrilled with the success we have with Amazon…with LOL, and once you see these formats that have that success, everyone is chasing for the next format in that space.”
“Coming back to the hybrid reference that I gave. It doesn’t need to be a comedy show. It can be comedy playing throughout it. We saw it with Let’s Play Ball.”
Let’s Play Ball, which involves contestants rolling a giant red ball across countries against each other, came from YouTube on Signal.Stream’s channel StukTV and is being piloted for ITV in the UK.
“It is now starting to travel around the world and it absolutely has comedy at its heart,” explains Townley.
Comedy is “really important” he says, “whether that is people wanting escapism from the current world or nostalgia, but I think either way, it’s part of our job to put smiles on people’s faces. That feels really important to me.”
Mixing sport with entertainment is also proving popular. Banijay’s Worker Bee has the upcoming Netflix live event Beat Luke Littler, plus, following Football Island, it has a big physical show called Last One Standing.
“The sport entertainment side is “a big focus for us. Last One Standing absolutely highlights that”, as does the success of the hit Korean format Physical: 100 series which it has made for Netflix in Sweden, France and Italy and is “doing brilliantly”.
Takeaways: how can you weave comedy into your formats; physical challenges and live are a powerful combination
Brand partnerships and co-pros
A show that Townley highlights that represents the zeitgeist and how branded content can be baked into a concept is The Million Dollar Idea (working title).
The format has come from Endemol Shine Germany and capitalises on the trend for side hustles.
“Our team there produces the brilliant Dragons’ Den. This is very different to Dragons’ Den, but falls into the same genre, in that…everyone seems like they’ve got an idea for a product that they think could be their million-dollar idea.”
The show is made in partnership with Lidl and involves simply pitching the concept, explains Townley.
“You don’t need the case study, you don’t need the business strategy, you don’t need to have had an example of, ‘I’ve sold this many units’. It is literally just the idea.”
The winner gets not only cash but their product is stocked in Lidl within a couple of days.
“It’s great because [of] the diversity; you see so many different personalities coming through. You’ve got so many different ideas and the product is on the shelves 24-48 hours later.”
To fund its ideas, Townley says “we are always looking at different models”, including “co-productions [and] co-developments”. As well as looking at “internal creative alliances” working “cross-border.”
“We’re all stronger together [and] Banijay Entertainment is incredibly passionate about investing and financially investing in our creative talent” using its creative fund that is “used and discussed on a daily basis at the moment.”
He predicts even more new IP will come, “through a partnership and it’s going to come through a partnership with somebody that has a platform, somebody that owns the platform, plus the creators.
“And I think working together and funding models where we both work together and we both take an element of the risk, so we de-risk the proposition...[is] going to be happening more and more. And I think that’s something that we are absolutely supercharging at Banijay.”
Takeaways: make a brand integral to your show; inject immediacy into your format; partner to create new IP
Capitalising on All3 merger and data
Townley says “we’re so excited” about the merger and how many shows it now has in its IP suitcase for Cannes.
“I think The Traitors [which also has a theatre show coming out] will absolutely get a huge focus in that regard. But I think that, from a personal point of view..[and] a creative point of view, the team just got a lot stronger; when we look at the scale… That absolute strength across the board: that creative strength, plus the catalogue,”
“It’s exciting our labels and I think that the one thing we now do is absolutely make sure that we are supporting that creative community to make sure they have what they need, so they can have the tools to create the best formats and produce the best formats.”
Those he highlights for Netflix include Studio Lambert’s Monopoly for Netflix, Bunim/Murray’s Simon Says and Initial and Worker Bee’s ambitious dating voting show Netflix, Will You Marry Me?
But he reiterated: “We’ve got that offering for everyone, whether it is a traditional buyer, a streamer, a digital platform, YouTube [or] the live experience.”
Digital and data play an important part in the process too and Banijay will be helped by Little Dot Studios joining as part of the merger as they are “absolute market leaders.”
Creativity is paramount, Townley says, but harvesting data across social networks and digital platforms helps.
“I don’t think we sit here and go data is the be all and end all to the creative process... But when you have this ability to capture that data and assist our creatives... it’s only a strength and it only gives confidence to the market and the buyers out there as well.”
Takeaways: mergers can strengthen teams; data can be useful to assist creatives’ development and sales
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