Banijay Launches Sports Division to Focus on ‘Sportainment’

K.J. Yossman

28 November 2023 at 10:42 am·1-min read

Super indie production company Banijay has unveiled a push into “sportainment” with the launch of a new sports division.

Banijay Sports will focus on entertainment, documentary and digital content with a sports angle as well as pursuing new partnerships, content investment and M&A in the field.

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The new division will not pursue broadcast or streaming rights.

Banijay CEO Marco Bassetti revealed plans for the new division at U.K. TV conference Content London on Tuesday afternoon.

The official push into sports will build on Banijay’s existing content, which includes a number of documentaries from Banijay-owned Workerbee such as “That Peter Crouch Film,” about U.K. soccer star Crouch is available on Amazon Prime Video, “Tyson Bruno,” made in association with Sky Studios for Sky, charts the rivalry between boxing legends Mike Tyson and Frank Bruno while “Human Playground,” which is narrated by Idris Elba, was produced by Scenery and Workerbee for Netflix.

Other Banijay companies including Endemol Shine Iberia and Endemol Shine Australia have also ventured into the sports docs while Banijay Benelux is the umbrella company for Dutch sports production company Southfields, which produces coverage, talk shows and documentaries among other fare. Earlier this year Banijay Ibera also inked a deal to launch sports content production company LaLiga Studios.

“While we’ve already made some considerate moves in sport across our global footprint of talented producers, we wanted to concentrate our efforts in building value in this space,” said Bassetti. “In having a centralised division, we have further capacity to deliver on partnerships, carve greater volume, mobilise digital opportunities, and ultimately, fulfil our ongoing goals to scale the group.”

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