The merger of Banijay and All3Media creates the largest independent television production group the industry has ever seen. By almost any measure, it is an exceptional business, bringing together some of the strongest television production companies, a huge catalog of intellectual property and operations across 25 territories.
It also represents the final chapter in a story that began more than 25 years ago.
When Endemol acquired the independent production company I co-founded, Brighter Pictures, in 2001, joining a larger international group seemed like the obvious next step. Scale has provided access to capital, international distribution and the opportunity to develop ideas across multiple regions. Like many founders of that generation, I believed that the future belonged to companies that could combine creative independence with international reach.
Looking back, this acquisition was one point on a much longer timeline. Endemol merged with Shine, Banijay acquired Endemol Shine, and Banijay is now merged with All3Media. Consolidation has become one of the defining business stories of modern television.
Its commercial justification has remained remarkably consistent. Larger groups can spread risk across many companies, invest more in development, negotiate internationally, and generate greater long-term value from successful intellectual property. If we look at it through the eyes of the financial markets, bigger has generally proven to be better.
But the television industry does not have a single customer.
Investor reward measure. Commissioners rarely do this. Viewers rarely notice it.
Throughout my career, first as a freelance producer and then within ITV studios, broadcasters and presenters have rarely looked to the greatest resource. They wanted the product or company with the most compelling track record in the type of software they were being asked to run. A large parent company may provide financial reassurance, but the creative decision remains rooted in niche expertise and relevant expertise.
Viewers are also removed. They care Traitors, Big brother, Peaky Blinders or Race all over the world. Ownership of the company that makes the software is barely recorded. For the audience, the brand is the offer.
This helps explain one of the enduring paradoxes of production. Financially, groups grow through consolidation. Creatively, they work hard to maintain the brand identity that made them worth owning. Banijay may appear as one company in an annual report, but commissioners still buy from companies like Kudos, Remarkable, Dragonfly, and Studio Lambert. A company’s scale is valuable in the boardroom. This is much less convincing in the room where the programs are commissioned.
The significance of the merger may ultimately lie less in its size than what the enlarged company is now expected to do with it.
Over the past 18 months, I’ve spoken to founders and creative leaders working within the brands owned by both Banjay and All3Media. Although their circumstances are different, many describe the same strategic pressure. They were encouraged to think beyond traditional commissioning economics and develop long-term growth plans that did not assume an increase in orders from broadcasters or streaming companies.
This is not evidence that either company has lost confidence in television. Major commissions are still very valuable, both creatively and commercially. It reflects a broader recognition that future growth will require more than just winning the next job.
For decades, production companies became exceptionally good at serving commissioners because commissioners sat at the center of the economic model. Broadcasters financed the program, scheduled it, marketed it, and controlled the relationship with the audience. The producers provided the creative work.
Building a direct relationship with this audience requires a different set of skills. So can ongoing publishing across digital platforms, developing businesses around creators, transitioning programming brands into live entertainment, or generating value from intellectual property long after broadcast. None of these abilities automatically come from being excellent at the television industry.
This is one of the reasons why Little Dot Studios is proving to be one of the most strategically important assets within the combined company. Its expertise lies not only in production, but in digital publishing, channel growth, audience development, and rights management across platforms where traditional TV producers exercise much less influence.
Banijay has developed its own businesses in digital distribution, creator-led content and live entertainment. However, neither organization has been able to make an impact in those areas comparable to its influence in television. Integration does not mean that the problem has been solved. It gives the extended group a stronger set of tools with which to manipulate them.
Television remains one of the most powerful ways to reach mass audiences and create intellectual property of lasting value. But assembling larger groups of production companies will not, by itself, secure the next phase of growth.
The challenge is no longer just having more intellectual property rights. It’s creating more ways to build a business around it.
Digital businesses start from a different premise. They can test the idea before it goes through a formal commissioning process, learn from audience behavior as it happens and move between video, audio, live events, subscriptions and commerce. Their relationship with the fans is ongoing and not through the broadcaster’s schedule.
Traditional television companies have often treated digital as an additional form of distribution. They’ve launched YouTube channels, podcasts, branded content divisions, and live extensions, but relatively few have turned these activities into businesses capable of standing alongside their television operations.
This is partly because the habits required for success are very different. Television development is selective, expensive and often slow. Ideas are refined for a small number of powerful buyers, and the cost of a mistake can be significant. Digital publishing often rewards speed, regularity, and a willingness to respond publicly to what the audience does. A TV producer may spend months perfecting a single show while a content creator tests several ideas and lets the audience help decide which ones are worth more investment.
No model is inherently superior. They have different economies and serve different markets. The danger is in assuming that digital is just a TV connected through another screen.
The value of Little Dot is that it’s built around those differences. The question is whether this expertise can shape the wider group rather than remaining concentrated within one specialist company.
The same question applies to live entertainment. A TV show can support tours, exhibitions, immersive experiences, merchandise and brand partnerships, but a unique title isn’t enough. These companies require operational experience and an understanding of what audiences will pay to watch the program. The opportunity is to turn interest into an ongoing relationship without burning out or diminishing the brand you’ve created.
The combined company has an exceptional catalog from which to start. Its more established formats are already moving between regions, platforms and generations. Expanding those franchises represents a clear opportunity. The more difficult task will be to develop new intellectual property with a broader commercial life in mind from the beginning, rather than adding digital, audio or live activity only after a TV show has become successful.
This raises a cultural and commercial challenge as well. The traditional Super-Indie game was created by acquiring entrepreneurial companies and allowing them enough autonomy to continue producing distinctive works. This balance becomes more difficult as the parent company grows. Shared services, centralized investment, and coordinated exploitation of rights can make a group stronger, but innovative businesses rarely flourish when too many decisions are pulled toward the center.
Therefore the expanded Banijai must do two things at once. It needs to make better use of it n its resources across distribution, digital publishing and live entertainment while maintaining the identity and independence of the brands that commissioners choose to work with. The logic of merger lies in combining resources. Creative value may depend on knowing what not to combine.
A group can have dozens of brands, but ideas still originate in relatively small teams. The next successful format will not be created by the corporate structure. It will come from a producer, writer, or founder who sees an opportunity before the market and convinces others to share that belief.
Consolidation can provide the capital, distribution and flexibility that allows the idea to travel further. He cannot create the instinct that produced the idea.
For this reason, the next phase of consolidation will likely look different from the last. The most valuable acquisition of a global production group may not be another TV brand. It could be a creative company, a digital publisher, a sports media company, a live events operation, or a platform with direct access to a specific audience. The next prize might be ability and not another catalogue.
This is why the term “super indie” may eventually become inappropriate. It describes a company assembled from independent producers, but not necessarily the broader business that those producers are now expected to help create. The merger of Banijay and All3Media has come at a point where the production sector is being asked to think beyond production, without yet settling on what comes after it.
And this is not the end of television. Television has become the basis for a broader entertainment business.
When Brighter Pictures joined Endemol in 2001, the promise of expansion was that a successful idea could be taken further. This promise has been fulfilled many times. The question facing the world’s largest independent production group is whether its size can now support a more direct and sustainable relationship with audiences, rather than leaving that relationship almost entirely to broadcasters and platforms.
Banijay-All3Media could be the last great indie game as the industry has known it. All of the following will survive in the television industry, but will need to think, work and grow as something broader than just a television production company.
