The story
On 13 January 2026, the Banijay Group confirmed reports earlier that month that it was in talks with RedBird IMI to merge their respective Banijay Entertainment and All3Media television production businesses. A merger agreement, also encompassing Banijay's live events business, was announced on 3 March 2026, with the Banijay Group and RedBird IMI confirmed to hold 50% in the combined business, which would be called Banijay Entertainment. The deal closed on 9 July, with the new company, consolidated under Banijay Group, being headquartered at All3Media's London headquarters.
In late-April 2026, Banijay Media Germany subsidiary Innovation Media established a new entertainment, sport and live event streaming platform called ShowdownTV, the new streaming channel became available on streaming platforms such as Apple TV and Android TV, and will show content from the fields of sports, live events and entertainment from Banijay's portfolio, such as reality talkshow Nightfever, TV total Promi Wrestling, Das große Promi-Boxen and The Ultimate HypeBanijay along with the 7th season of the martial arts event series Ringlife Combat.
On 15 July 2026, Banijay Entertainment set up a bidding war to buy Lionsgate Studios along with the Paris-based Mediawan and Tokyo-based CyberAgent. Bolloré was thought to have also bid for the company, but confirmed that it wasn't bidding as per earlier reports. On 29 July 2026, Banijay dropped out of the bidding war.
From Wikipedia’s article on Banijay Entertainment, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4