Prior to the merger, Banijay Group, based in Paris, operated across Europe, the US and Australasia, with a particular strength in non-scripted / reality shows.

The merger with Zodiak, also based in Paris and strong across Europe, adds a range of assets including a leading production capability in the UK and a global sales arm with a large library of 20,000 hours of content.

The new merged Banijay Group, which will have revenues of around $1bn, has attracted investment from Vivendi, the parent company of Canal Plus, which has taken a 26.2% stake, alongside existing shareholders, LOV Group and De Agostini.

To support the transaction and subsequent bank syndication exercise, Apex Insight produced an in-depth study of the historical development of, and prospects for, the TV production markets in Europe and the US and Banijay / Zodiak’s position within them. This commercial due diligence work revealed that market growth has speeded up in recent years as television industry innovation has continued and the economic outlook has improved, in particular in markets such as Spain which were impacted by the Eurozone crisis. Forecasts are for growth to continue with Europe in particular benefitting from a more positive outlook for TV advertising revenues.

Philippe Magnani, Principal at LOV Group, said:
“Apex Insight’s work provided a detailed account of how the European and US TV production markets have performed, an explanation of the factors which have driven the trends, and forecasts of how the market is expected to develop in future”