Ahead of Banijay Entertainment’s first MIPCOM since completing its All3Media merger, James Townley, chief content officer for development, kicks off our Format Zone strand of ScreenMDM Talks, weighing in on sourcing breakthrough new IP on YouTube and from producers around the world in the quest for the “formats of tomorrow.”
The scale of the overall operation is significant; its dominance in the format sector is undeniable, as the merger creates a lineup of some of the biggest brands in the world, including The Traitors, MasterChef, and Big Brother. Even with that abundance of riches, incubating new IP remains key to Banijay. “We are keen to supercharge our pipelines even more,” Townley says.
YouTube is, naturally, a source of “creative inspiration, partnerships, and formats that could sit on another platform,” he said. “We’ve had real success from the announcement we made last year with Let’s Play Ball with the partnership with Signal.Stream and our fantastic team at Endemol Shine Netherlands. That’s now starting to travel across the world. You would have heard our announcement at the end of last year with Stop the Train from Squeeze and his brilliant company Untold. When we have these examples, it is impossible to ignore. The most important thing for us when it comes to researching those opportunities on YouTube or digital platforms is that not every one of those formats has the potential to be the next generational super brand. You’ve got to work very carefully with them. They’ve got to have a significantly robust format structure. And sometimes that’s when partnerships with more traditional production companies can help. That’s something we’re looking at more and more.”
The key, he said, is being open to experimentation on YouTube in “a world that can be quite risk-averse to the idea of a new format or new IP because of how well The Traitors, MasterChef, Big Brother, and Survivor are doing. They are incredible, robust, almost bulletproof formats that you can’t compete with, but you can complement and run alongside them. That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re really excited about the pipeline and what we’re bringing to MIPCOM.”
Access the episode on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts for more from Townley on the keys to successfully bringing YouTube IP to “traditional” platforms, partnering with producers in markets outside the usual suspects of format creators, the types of big-bet formats that are faring well with streaming platforms globally, and the supersized slate of new and returning brands for Cannes.
