Stéphane Courbit, Banijay

One of the least well-known owners of independent production businesses on the European scene, Banijay Entertainment is certainly one of the fastest growing. Set up in 2008 by the company’s multi-millionnaire driving force Stéphane Courbit, it is backed to the tune of more than €400m by private investors such as the Agnelli family, the De Agostini family, and Courbit himself.

For the past two years, Courbit has been working hard on acquisitions, buying 14 production companies in 10 key territories such as France, Germany, Scandinavia, the UK and the US, and transforming the company into a major player on the European production scene in record time.

The plan - according to the sickeningly successful 45-year-old French entrepreneur - is to double or treble the size of the company in the next three years, catapulting Banijay into the top three global content companies - rivalling the likes of Endemol, Fremantle and Zodiak.

Expansion plans

“For the strategy to work effectively, we need to be able to exchange formats between our network of production companies in 20 key territories, which means expanding from our European and US base into Latin America and Asia,” he says.

Courbit is one of the youngest and most powerful indie chiefs on the European television production scene. A former entertainment producer, he set up his own production company, ASP/Case Production, in 1994.

In 1998, Endemol acquired 50% of the capital and the remaining 50% in 2001 when it renamed the company Endemol France, with Courbit remaining as chairman. When Endemol was bought by Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica in 2006, Courbit’s top negotiating skills saw him walk away a year later with €200m.

Courbit runs Banijay as chairman - with the help of executive VPs François de Brugada (its creative chief ) and Pascale Amiel - from the sixth floor office of his holding company, Lov Group, in Paris’s business district.

Often described as a French version of Britain’s best-known entrepreneur, Richard Branson, the urbane, considered and softly spoken Courbit comes over more Roman Abramovich in the flesh - shunning the limelight rather than gravitating towards it.

Married with three children - whose initials form the word ‘Lov’ - the 45 year-old businessman is certainly well connected, listing French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger among his personal friends.

On-the-record interviews with Courbit are rare - even in the French press. He is better known for off-the-record breakfast briefings, albeit late ones as getting his kids to school takes precedence.

But on this occasion, the covers are off. One reason might be that Banijay, which already has a group turnover of more than E300m, is keen to cultivate a higher profile on the UK production scene. Courbit admits Banijay is working on a second UK acquisition to add to factual producer Zig Zag, which it snapped up earlier this year for £20m, and expects to do a deal with a large, multi-genre producer in the next two years.

“We want to be stronger than we are in the UK,” he confirms. “Zig Zag was just the first step. We have met a lot of bigger UK producers in the past two years but haven’t found the right one yet.”

It will be a big stepping stone for Courbit, who sees the UK as an important shop window for Banijay formats - second only to the US.

Finding the right companies to fit into the Banijay mould isn’t easy. Indies need to demonstrate creativity, be focused on reality, entertainment and gameshows - Banijay’s core genres - and demonstrate strong broadcaster relationships.

But at the same time, they must not be so established that they have evolved their own company philosophy, which could make them difficult to assimilate.

“It’s better to buy newer, medium-sized companies that are all at the same level than to mix corporate cultures - which is what would happen if we bought a much bigger group,” he says, appearing to throw a question mark over the success of deals such as Zodiak’s acquisition of RDF (Broadcast, 04.06.10).

Courbit hopes that by buying up creative, young production companies that enjoy good relationships with broadcasters in important territories, he can dramatically increase the number of Banijay-owned formats produced around the world while retaining intellectual property rights - even in the notoriously tough US market.

“Holding onto rights is always a question of strengths and weaknesses. If you own a blockbuster that’s in demand you can say ‘OK, it’s my rules if you want this programme’.”

Now, he argues, a Banijay producer such as Bunim Murray will find it much easier to hold onto rights in the US than it did when creating and producing a show such as Keeping Up With The Kardashians - for which MTV remains the distributor.

“Now if Bunim Murray gets a show away with a US network it will be different. Holding onto rights will be part of the deal,” says Courbit.

For Courbit, adhering to the Banijay business plan is crucial. “We have our own rules and philosophy - creating this structure was the most difficult part of our first two years,” he admits.

“But now we are a confederation of entrepreneurs - and as a confederation, we are all in the same family. There are rules set for the group, but other than that our producers are free to do business as they see fit, because we think they know their local markets, their broadcasters and their viewers best.”

By giving companies a free rein, Courbit aims to encourage creativity and achieve the holy grail: the creation of the next monster hit.

“In the past five years, we haven’t seen any big, new TV blockbusters on the scale of Millionaire, Big Brother or Pop Idol. There will be one at some point. I don’t know when, but when it does happen, I expect it to be ours,” he declares, breaking into a grin.

One thing is certain for Courbit: the blockbuster TV formats of the future will be very different to those that have dominated in the past, particularly in the way they are financed.

Paying for content

“A lot of things have happened since we set up only in 2008, notably the global economic crisis,” says Courbit. “Broadcasters used to enjoy organic growth of an average of 5-10% a year, which made them very competitive and aggressive. They wanted to have the best content, and in some cases they overpaid for it.”

Courbit points to the case of Channel 4 and Big Brother. The broadcaster paid an “amazing” £40m a year to Endemol for the show, says the man responsible for bringing Big Brother to French audiences as Loft Story on M6.

It’s the kind of deal we are unlikely to see so much of in the future, now that digital channel and internet growth has eaten away at the dominance of commercial channels, he reasons. “New financial models have to be found,” says Courbit, who points to his latest creation, Dilemma, a stripped reality format launched in May on French digital channel W9, as the way forward.

The series, in which a group of contestants are isolated from the outside world for a period of eight weeks, during which they face a series of personal dilemmas before a winner emerges, has some clear cross-over with Big Brother.

The major difference is that the format, created by Banijay-owned French producer ALJ, is 50% funded by W9 and 50% by online video service DailyMotion, with Banijay pumping it as the new face of low-cost reality TV.

Already in talks with Channel 4, Banijay’s De Brugada promises: “They can do Dilemma for a quarter of the price of this genre of programmes on main TV broadcasters [such as Big Brother on C4]. “If a broadcaster pays us £10m for eight weeks, we sign tomorrow.”

New world order

TV is a tougher business now and we all have to adapt to the new world, explains Courbit. “Which is easier for a newer company like Banijay than it is for an older, more established company such as Endemol or Fremantle.”

But despite all this new world talk, Courbit remains upbeat about more traditional revenue streams such as TV advertising - not surprising when you consider his Lov Group has joined forces with Publicis for a deal to acquire French broadcast media sales entity France Télévisions Publicité. “We are optimistic that advertising is going to return to TV because the viewing is still there,” he says.