Takis Candilis resurfaces at Banijay

Takis Candilis has resurfaced at Banijay a week after exiting Lagardère.

The seasoned French TV exec, who was at TF1 before running Lagardère’s TV business, will be head of scripted at Banijay Group.

In that role he will be based in Paris and oversee all of Banijay’s scripted efforts out of France and across the wider Banijay Group.

Banijay has a network of production companies throughout Europe, Australia and the US and Candilis will oversee the drama efforts of all of these. Production companies in the group include Screentime in Australia, Banijay Studios in the US, Nordisk in Scandinavia and Cuarzo in Spain.

Marco Bassetti, Group CEO of Banijay, said, “We are extremely pleased to have one of the leading exponents of international scripted programming join us at Banijay Group.

“Takis has an extraordinarily deep knowledge and experience of developing and creating scripted content. It is an important next step for the Group to grow its business in this important genre and, with Takis at the helm, we look forward to expanding our global presence in the drama arena.”

Candilis added: “It is certainly an exciting time to arrive at Banijay Group following the recent merger [with Zodiak], which has made it the world’s largest independent content creation company.

“There are many award-winning, fiction producers within the Group and I look forward to working with them to determine new projects and to support them as they develop and widen their production slates.”

Following Candilis’ exit from Lagardère last week the French channels, production and distribution business appointed Christophe Thoral as his replacement. It has been a week of change in the French business, with ITV Studios also seeing one boss exit and another brought in.