Banijay Rights’ Simon Cox Details Slate & Strategy

The last year has been a vibrant one for Banijay Rights. “It’s a great time for us,” says Simon Cox, executive VP of content and acquisitions. “We have a significant-sized catalog, and it’s been growing. It’s not just about the size of it; it’s very much about the breadth, too. It’s very diverse across genres, languages and locations of origin, and we’re proud of what we can offer to buyers.”

In terms of gains, the company has been expanding in the documentary and factual space. “That’s been a really important area for us over the course of 2023,” Cox says. “The addition of the Beyond Rights catalog earlier this year helped broaden our slate in factual areas, and that’s been working well.”

He adds that growth has also come from many new platforms in the AVOD realm, serving as a complementary business area to Banijay Rights’ existing linear clients. “FAST is a very exciting and growing space,” Cox says. “We’re now running 26 channels syndicated over 137 feeds.”

Scripted programming remains a vital pillar of the catalog, of course. “Scripted will always be in demand everywhere around the world,” Cox says. “Buyers are interested in new, exciting, scripted content. We’ve got a very wide range of drama, all different genres and subgenres, and we have a slate that speaks to a wide variety of buyers. We very much look to meet the demands of those buyers across a broad catalog, with plenty of choice and something for everyone.”

Rather than looking at trends in drama, “it’s all about what is a good story—and good stories come from anywhere,” Cox says. “We try to set as many trends as we can with quality IP in our catalog.”

The company’s entertainment offering remains strong as well. “Entertainment is what Banijay is very much known for,” Cox says. “We continue to lead the market in those genres that we are renowned for. We are looking to expand further into more factual-based formats,” he adds. “In traditional entertainment, there’s also a strategy for igniting new interest in legacy formats.”

While the company is perhaps less well known in straightforward factual genres than in the entertainment and drama arenas, “we’ve expanded, grown and made gains in the unscripted space,” Cox says. “Demand for box-set or short-run series in factual and feature documentaries remains high. We have been focusing on that this past year, providing high-quality series that work for all channels.” He adds of the factual slate: “We’ve got interesting pieces of talent, interesting fact-ent series and depth and diversity of pieces of IP that will speak to audiences around the world.”