An $8 billion merger has created what the companies call the world's largest independent production company — and the man tasked with running its American operation is Ben Samek.

Banijay and All3Media completed their merger to form Banijay Entertainment, headquartered in London and jointly owned by Banijay Group and RedBird IMI, each holding a 50% stake, according to Variety. Jeff Zucker serves as chairman, Marco Bassetti as CEO, and Jane Turton — formerly All3Media's chief executive — as deputy CEO.

Samek, who has led Banijay Americas as CEO since February 2023, is expected to oversee the combined US entity created by the merger. He previously served as president and chief operating officer of Banijay Americas from 2018 until his promotion to CEO. His track record includes an Emmy as a producer on The Amazing Race.

The American production portfolio he now oversees is substantial. Banijay Americas' labels include Endemol Shine North America, Bunim/Murray Productions, Truly Original, 51 Minds, Authentic Entertainment, Endemol Shine Boomdog, and Banijay Mexico. On the All3Media side, Studio Lambert produces The Traitors for Peacock — a reality competition series that has become one of the streaming service's most talked-about titles.

Bringing those two rosters under one roof means a single US operation now sits behind an unusually broad spread of unscripted and scripted television. Bunim/Murray, for instance, is the company that effectively invented the modern reality show format with The Real World in the 1990s. Studio Lambert's The Traitors drew Peacock's biggest unscripted launch audience when it premiered. That lineage now feeds into one reporting structure.

Samek has already been building relationships beyond the merger. In April 2026, Phil Rosenthal — the Emmy-winning creator of Everybody Loves Raymond — announced a partnership with Banijay for global digital content, with Samek calling the collaboration "incredibly exciting" and praising Rosenthal as "a filmmaker and storyteller of his calibre," according to a post on Rosenthal's official Facebook page.

For viewers, the merger's most visible effect will likely be in how shows get made and where they land. An independent production company — meaning one not owned by a studio or streamer — sells its programmes to whichever platform pays. When that independent gets bigger, it has more titles to sell and more leverage at the negotiating table. Whether that translates into more shows reaching screens, or simply into more shows competing for the same slots, is a question the next commissioning season will answer.

The merger closes a chapter of consolidation in the production sector that has seen several mid-sized companies absorbed into larger groups. Banijay Entertainment, with its dual ownership structure and London base, now sits alongside the major studio-backed producers as a standalone competitor. Samek's job is to make sure the American side of that operation holds its own.