Banijay Group buys controlling share of award-winning U.S.-based production company Stephen David Entertainment

Producers of the Emmy Winning The Men Who Built America Acquisition Boosts Banijay Group's Library of Original Content and Expands Scripted Entertainment Footprint in the U.S.

Continuing its growth strategy in the English speaking content market, Marco Bassetti, CEO of the Banijay Group, a leading independent content creator, producer and distributor of globally recognized television series and multimedia entertainment announced that it has signed a deal with award-winning U.S.-based production company Stephen David Entertainment (SDE). The agreement sees Banijay Group take a controlling interest in this highly successful production company to enrich Banijay's catalogue with a library of ready-made original series and to expand into producing new original series and larger-scale scripted entertainment in the U.S. for global exploitation across the Banijay infrastructure. Stephen David, founder and president of SDE, will report to David Goldberg, Banijay Group President and Banijay Studios North America CEO. SDE will be the latest acquisition of the Banijay Group in the US after the very successful Bunim-Murray Productions, managed by Jon Murray, and the newly launched Banijay Studios North America.

SDE produces unique, premium non-scripted content and scripted documentary series including Emmy nominated docudrama mini-series The World Wars (History); Emmy winning event mini-series The Men Who Built America (History) and The West (Discovery Channel); anthology mini-series American Genius (National Geographic Channel) and true crime series Redrum. SDE's most recent production, the brand new three-part event mini-series Sons of Liberty, premieres in the U.S. on 25th January 2015 on History. SDE is an end-to-end television production and development company based out of New York City, with its own in-house post-production facility.

Marco Bassetti, Banijay Group CEO, commented, This new deal underlines our policy to expand our footprint in the English-speaking market, bringing added value to our business as a whole. I have huge respect for Stephen and very much admire the high quality and entertaining programs he produces. With SDE on board, our presence in the U.S. market becomes even stronger and more diverse.

David Goldberg, added, This move complements our existing business and strengthens Banijay's ability to break new creative ground in North America. We believe there is a great deal of opportunity for growth of the non-scripted and scripted documentary genres. We will also look to SDE to contribute to the development of the Banijay scripted activity that is a main objective of our US strategy. Stephen is an incredibly gifted talent and his strong track record as an award-winning content creator and producer makes SDE a great fit for the business we're building in North America. We look forward to working with Stephen and his team.

Stephen David added, This is a very exciting start to the New Year and I am delighted to see SDE join the Banijay Group family. We share mutual goals and ambitions. First and foremost, the desire to create top quality programming that entertains and has strong local and international appeal.

Stephen David Entertainment was represented in the transaction by Ron Milkes and Bryan Bowles of Bryor Media Partners.

LINK:	http://www.banijay.com/banijay-group-buys-controlling-share-award-winn...
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