Marco Bassetti On Banijay’s Billion-Dollar Scripted Ambition & The International Drama Business: “There Will Be More Risk, But Also More Opportunity”

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: As the drama biz convenes in Lille for Series Mania, Marco Bassetti, CEO of Europe-based indie production and distribution heavyweight Banijay Entertainment, tells Deadline about his billion-dollar ambition in scripted. “I think that we are going to reach close to €1BN [$1.1BN] of business in scripted next year,” Bassetti says in an exclusive interview. “From where we started to where we are today, we are the biggest European producer in scripted.

We are happy about what we have done.” The Banijay boss is referencing a European Audiovisual Observatory report that ranks Banijay as the top independent producer in Europe terms of number of titles with 53 for 2023 (the latest measurement period), and in terms of the number of countries productions are originated in, 11.

Bassetti says there is still space to grow that drama footprint. “If you look at where we stand with our unscripted business, we are pretty big in many countries.

I think that we have opportunity to grow more in scripted.” Looking at the map, he namechecks some countries where he plans to bolster Banijay’s drama business. “I’m thinking about UK, and there is also more space for us in the French and German markets because we are not big enough there.