Banijay chief plays down potential ITV Studios acquisition

Banijay chief executive François Riahi has played down an acquisition of ITV Studios, following its recent mega-merger with fellow super-indie All3Media.

Speaking on an earnings call for its half-year financial results, Riahi was quizzed whether ITVS would represent an attractive proposition once it has separated from its broadcast and streaming sibling through Sky’s agreed deal to buy ITV Media & Entertainment for £1.6bn.

“It’s not the right time for us or them. We are in a transaction that is going to last a long time,” he said, referring to the All3Media deal.

“We have a lot on our plate to integrate so it’s not something that’s really on the cards today.”

Following the announcement of Sky’s deal for ITV, Banijay quickly emerged as one of the suitors for ITVS, which will become a standalone entity.

Group revenue up but entertainment division slides

In its H1 results, Banijay Entertainment, which covers production, distribution and live, saw a 2.2% dip in revenues from €1.43bn (£1.22bn) to €1.37bn (£1.17bn) year-on-year. Banijay said the decrease was due to “anticipated phasing in production and distribution”.

Production revenues were the most acutely hit, dropping 11.9% from €1.1bn in H1 2025 to €959.9m this year (£945.1m to £821.5m). Distribution offset this with a 10.5% jump in revenues from €149m (£127.6m) to €158.6m (£135.8m).

Banijay’s half-year results do not include All3Media figures, which are to be available in quarterly reports from Q3 onwards. The companies are now in the process of wrapping their €4.3bn (£3.8bn) deal which will create the largest non-US studio group in the world, with annual revenues of €4.3bn.

Group revenue grew 4.5% to reach €2.6bn (£2.2bn) up from €2.2bn (£1.9bn) in H1 2025. Adjusted EBITDA was up fractionally to reach £430.7m. 

Riahi added: “2026 is definitely a transformational year for Banijay Group. The successful acquisition of Tipico, the completion of the combination of Banijay Entertainment and All3Media, and the proposed acquisition of JOA in France grant to the group more scale, more diversity in terms of geography, channels of distribution, and a better strategic positioning to achieve all its strategic goals, creating new opportunities for both growth and value creation.

“In this context, we delivered a solid first-half performance, with solid revenue growth across the Group.

“In Entertainment & Live, record live activity and continued momentum across our content portfolio in distribution partly offset the anticipated phasing of content production, demonstrating the strength and diversification of our business model. We continue to deliver strong cash generation, and the combination of our two major M&A deals and the debt capital markets operations performed in H2 related to them, strengthen our financial profile.”