Marco Bassetti warns government intervention on BBC and C4 could do more harm than good
Marco Bassetti has said privatising or consolidating the PSBs will not help them to compete with the streamers, as he labelled the government proposals around the BBC and Channel 4 “a mistake”.
Speaking to The Telegraph, the Banijay chief exec said any attempts to catch the global SVoDs are futile because they are too powerful and disrupting the British broadcasters’ funding models would only undermine them.
“We need to take out the idea that in order to compete with streamers you need to privatise or merge,” he said. “How can you compete with streamers? Even if you do [merge], you are so far from them.
“To change the natural DNA of Channel 4, that has supported quality and innovation, would be a mistake. Looking at this alongside the freezing of the BBC licence fee, then there is even more reason for concern about this market for the future.”
Reiterating Banijay’s endorsement of Broadcast’s Not 4 Sale campaign, Bassetti said the super-indie is “very supportive of the current status” noting how C4 “has been very supportive of the creative industries and been successful in exporting many shows around the world”.
With the SVoD giants so advanced, the former Endemol and Mediaset exec advised local broadcasters to focus on smaller, domestic or targeted streaming services, citing ITV and BBC-backed BritBox, which have a clearer “financial rationale”.
Entering the metaverse
Elsewhere, Bassetti indicated that he is considering revenue opportunities in the metaverse.
Banijay has already begun broadening the exploitation of its high-profile IP through its commercial arm Banijay Brands, which has expanded its merchandising, gaming and gambling operations to include dedicated music rights licensing and publishing operations under the guidance of director of music and secondary rights Antonia Gilham.
Although the TV world has seen many false starts in virtual and augmented reality, Bassetti believes “we can create a space where our viewers can have a new experience with our intellectual property”, where competition from rivals is not as stiff.
However, he warned that “how the value of IP and distribution fit together” in this space has yet to be worked out.
No comments yet