Abu Dhabi-backed Banijay aims to challenge streaming titans

A newly merged Abu Dhabi-backed production house will rival global streaming giants such as Netflix, Amazon and Apple, according to Jeff Zucker, the former president of CNN who runs Redbird IMI.

Zucker told The National, an IMI-owned newspaper, that the merged entity of All3Media and Banijay, which will operate under the Banijay brand, would become the largest independent production company in the world.

“We have scale like no one else,” he said. Banijay holds a library of global TV hits, including “MasterChef,” “Big Brother,” and “The Traitors,” and has a combined revenue of more than $5 billion.

Zucker said the company’s strategy was focused on scale and adoption of artificial intelligence.

“Abu Dhabi is an incredibly important center for a lot of what’s going on, not just because it’s a great home for long-term capital and for opportunities of scale,” he said.

“It’s the center of what’s going on in the AI world.”