EXCLUSIVE: Over the past six months, Banijay UK boss Patrick Holland has set about overseeing the spend of a “substantial” amount of the super-indie’s £50M ($63.6M) Growth Fund, striking deals with the likes of James Norton, Kitty Kaletsky, Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald and experienced execs Tommy Bulfin, Kim Varvell and Chris Sussman, amongst others.
At a time of macroeconomic strife and ad slumps, the former BBC Two chief has been on something of a charm offensive to prove that the SAS Rogue Heroes, Masterchef and Big Brother maker can grow in line with the Fund’s three pillars: investing in start-up labels, striking flexible talent deals and recruiting for existing labels.
Patrick Holland. Image: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty Images
And Holland isn’t done yet, with the Fund having not quite run dry and there still being plenty of potential to extend it or invest in companies using non-Fund money, such as last year’s majority stake in Chloe producer Mam Tor.
Deadline can reveal that Banijay UK is on the verge of unveiling another scripted deal and, in the unscripted space, a development deal with a well-known entertainment talent. These moves are relatively imminent.
“If you go to other Banijay territories such as Germany, France and Italy we are seen as the most entrepreneurial and ‘investing’ company but when I first started here I wouldn’t have said that [about the UK division],” Holland told Deadline.
“I don’t think we were seen as necessarily being active in terms of investing in smaller entities. Myself and Marco [Bassetti – Banijay CEO] were keen to go to market and persuade people that we were enterpreneurial, not just because we want to get bigger but because we want to bring more talent and inspire people by saying ‘James Norton is joining’ or ‘we have these great execs who used to be commissoners at the BBC’.”
Tracking the Rabbit
Deadline revealed the Growth Fund’s splashiest deal so far – a stake in Happy Valley star Norton and Kaletsky’s Rabbit Track – last month, and Holland said Banijay beat off competition from “big production houses and venture capitalists” for the Rogue Agent indie’s signature.
He was taken by Norton and Kaletsky’s desire to treat Rabbit Track as anything but a “hobby horse label,” while they are keen to retain as much back-end and IP as possible.
James Norton and Kitty Kaletsky
Photo by Greg Funnell
“We saw eye to eye and came to a deal very quickly,” said Holland. “I’d always heard how James and Kitty had ambitions to grow the slate and I loved their ambition and openness. James will want to star in some projects and that is attractive for a commissioner but even more important than that is the strength of their slate.”
The pair have unnannounced BBC and ITV greenlights in the offing and Holland said the Growth Fund and Rabbit Track’s new relationship with Banijay will help them retain IP, avoiding a situation that has beset one of the label’s current co-produced shows – a “large scale project where they have had to trade everything off right at the beginning,” according to Holland.
“You might start a project and be responsible for the commission but then someone else becomes the producer and owns the majority of the IP in it,” he added. “You want to retain a significant portion of the IP, the backend and the whole production process.”
Rabbit Track wants to invest in development and grow in size, an ambition shared with vigor by the experienced duo of Peaky Blinders EP Bulfin and former Apple commissioner Varvell’s start-up Conker Pictures, another Growth Fund investee, revealed in April.
“With Conker, the ambition is to be a fully-fledged production company with their own back office,” Holland explained. “In two to three years time they want to be a substantial presence in the UK market and we want to help them attract other EPs and create a development team.”
Holland contrasted Conker’s business plan with other Growth Fund relationships such as former Netflix UK Director of Scripted Sussman or “someone we are talking to with a slate and vision who has no desire whatsoever to have back office and develop a team.” He said the various examples show that the super-indie is open to all manner of deals.
The global scripted community has been hit hard by the writers strike and macroeconomic shocks of late, with Holland acknowledging that there has been an “over inflated scripted market with too much made – some of it great and some if not so great.” But he said UK drama is in a good place and prices will naturally start coming down.
“On the other side of the Atlantic it is tough but our drama slate looks really healthy in terms of development,” he added. “The likes of Netflix [in the UK] feel like it is in a really coherent, strong and focused place. And we have [distributor] Banijay Rights with a great track record of investing in scripted.”
Unscripted challenges
Unscripted, said Holland, is having a tougher time.
He said the market is feeling the pinch due to advertising downturns impacting commercial broadcasters ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
“When the market is challenged, the commercial broadcasters cut shows based on what they can cut that won’t be on screen this year and it’s always unscripted because it has a shorter turnaround,” said Holland. “Hopefully this is just a blip.”
The BBC, meanwhile, splashed an estimated £60M to £80M on the Queen’s funeral, King’s coronation and Eurovision combined, leaving it with less to spend on unscripted, Holland added.
With this in mind, he wants to pivot the Fund to aid unscripted and is working on some soon-to-be-announced deals with entertainment talent who will develop shows with the likes of Love Island creator Natalka Znak and the heads of Banijay’s various unscripted labels. “We’ve been talking to Natalka and others about how to use the Growth Fund to do some of those talent deals with people who are on camera,” he added.
For Holland, the unscripted market is moving in two opposing directions. On the one hand, broadcasters are prioritizing their streaming platforms by focusing on “more premium, series narratives,” while, at the other end of the funding spectrum, networks are still happy to commission low-cost high-volume factual shows from outside London. The shows between these two poles are falling away, according to Holland, who said “the days of a mixed portfolio of medium-sized shows are gone.”
For this reason, Holland recently helped Interior Design Masters indie DSP launch a doc division helmed by Netflix’s Missing: Dead or Alive EP Graeme McAulay, while he has tasked Ambulance producer Dragonfly with moving into the premium modern history space occupied by the likes of Fremantle-owned Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story outfit 72 Films.
“There will be some repositioning of our existing slate over the coming months but you don’t want to course-correct too much based on a blip,” he added. “I keep saying to everyone that we are going through an economic downturn but need to make sure we are investing in genre areas where we feel there will be a success. In a challenging market, you have to think about your USP.”
All3Media speculation
This challenging market has sparked much chatter around mega consolidation and one of Banijay’s main super-indie rivals, All3Media, is currently on the block for around £1B, with ITV interested in the Warner Bros. Discovery/Liberty Global-owned Fleabag maker.
Speculation around Banijay’s interest in All3Media is abound and while Holland said “there are no discussions going on at the moment,” he posited why he thinks talk of consolidation is rife.
“Inflation in scripted has been baked up for years meaning that any producer will tell you their margins are slimmed,” he added. “You can therefore see the economic reasons behind consolidation.
“But, at the same time, TV production companies are quite interesting, nebulous entities and if you consolidate too much then you are just bringing two companies in the exact same area together.”
The market is watching, eagerly, for where the Growth Fund heads next.