Marco Bassetti, CEO of MasterChef and Peaky Blinders production empire Banijay Entertainment, has addressed speculation about the company’s interest in acquiring ITV.The Financial Times reported in April that Banijay has held talks with ITV about a takeover. Deadline reported last month that the talks were still tentative and that the shape of any deal was unclear.During an appearance at SXSW London, Bassetti sowed some confusion by saying “we’re not buying ITV Studios.”Bassetti went on to talk about the benefits of scale in the current climate. If Banijay was to make an audacious bid for ITV, it would cement its status as one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world.“To put this in context, we are a niche business with many companies, so we always talk to each other about how to create more value. And sometimes rumors get out,” he said, adding that we are currently “living in a world where consolidation is really important.”“It wasn’t like this a few years ago,” he said. “Then, we were a little bit scared about scale. We didn’t want to be seen as too big or powerful. But today, if you don’t have a big distribution branch or have the money to invest in pilots, it is difficult to stay in the market.”Flanked by its banking advisors at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Robey Warshaw, ITV has reportedly been entertaining potential suitors since at least last November. RedBird IMI, run by former CNN chief Jeff Zucker, emerged as the frontrunner to a deal after the Abu Dhabi-backed investment fund acquired All3Media last year.Last month, citing sources with knowledge of the talks, we reported that RedBird IMI’s interest has cooled significantly in recent weeks, though the situation remains fluid and could change again quickly. Sources told Deadline that RedBird IMI believes ITV Studios’ valuation is too high.Bassetti’s talk was moderated by Jordan Schwarzenberger, co-founder of Arcade Media, the management company of YouTube creators The Sidemen.On the topic of online creators and their convergence with traditional producers like Banijay, Bassetti spoke at length, telling the audience that to move forward, both producers and creators must increasingly work together.“We must converge if we want to exploit the content created,” Bassetti said. “We need to use as much as possible all the platforms the market has today. So like your next picture for you is Netflix. We are working to produce shows on YouTube.”
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