TBI Tech & Analysis: Banijay, Fremantle & All3 vie for top spot in K7’s Tracking The Giants report

The Bridge

Banijay, Fremantle and All3Media were again among the top three format distributors of 2022 while dating and feel-good formats continued to attract interest, according to K7 Media’s annual Tracking The Giants report.

Banijay and Fremantle both increased the number of new formats launching over the past 12 months, according to the latest edition of K7 Media’s annual format report.

The intelligence consultancy’s annual findings, revealed today by TBI, found that Banijay was the number one distributor of new format adaptations over the past 12 months, ending Fremantle’s three-year reign at the top.

K7’s Tracking The Giants: The Top 100 Travelling Formats report also found that All3Media had posted annual growth in the number of new launches, having found huge success with The Traitors.

The Traitors

The Warner Bros. Discovery-backed company took third place as the most successful distributor of 2022, with The Traitors jumping from just one international adaptation in 2021 to seven in 2022.

Created by All3Media’s IDTV in The Netherlands and originally launching in March 2021 on RTL 4, the format jumped from the single international adaptation in December 2021, in Belgium, to seven launches in 2022, including Peacock in the US, BBC One in the UK and Network 10 in Australia.

According to the report, the big trend of the year has been the rise of reality as a key format genre and newer reality titles like The Bridge and The Traitors climbed up the format charts last year and look set to dominate the TV landscape throughout 2023.

K7 said that the unscripted market in 2022 also witnessed an increase in both the number of new adaptations and new IP travelling, adding that there was an increased number of unscripted format launches across both local and global platforms.

Feel-good formats and dating/relationship shows also remained popular themes with TV audiences in 2022.

Masked Singer

“As we see a decline in the number of format reboots and an increase in newly created formats from a more diverse range of territories traveling globally, it seems that broadcasters are willing to take more risks in their unscripted commissioning,” said K7 Media’s CEO & founder, Keri Lewis Brown.

“Despite the uncertain economic outlook, unscripted formats remain popular with global TV audiences who are seeking entertainment. The increased demand for global formats in 2022, coupled with the post-pandemic creaKve revival, suggest a more opKmisKc outlook for the global format business in 2023.”

The report also found that The Masked Singer had held on to its crown as the world’s best-selling format for a fourth consecutive year, while The Traitors was named the ‘fastest-moving’ title.

The annual report details the top 100 travelling unscripted TV formats and includes insights into the latest trends and sales globally.