Banijay Names Ex-HBO Europe Exec Steve Mathews to Scripted Division 

Television production giant Banijay has named Steve Mathews to its scripted division, appointing the ex-HBO Europe alumni to the newly-created role of content partnerships executive. Starting from Feb. 1, Matthews will help coordinate co-productions at Banijay’s European scripted operations, focusing on opportunities across the Nordic territories and Spain. 

“Scripted very much remains an area in which we want to grow our business,” noted Banijay CEO Marco Bassetti. “Through organic growth and M&A, we will continue to strengthen our capabilities in this arena and in Steve, we have vast amounts of knowledge, and hands-on experience, which will be invaluable as we continue to expand our portfolio.”

Banijay is the world’s largest international content producer and distributor with over 120 production companies across 22 territories, including Endemol Shine (MasterChef, The Office), Castaway Television Productions (Survivor) and Brit group Kudos (Broadchurch, Spooks).

Matthews joins Banijay from HBO Europe, where he was a VP, Executive Producer of Scripted and worked on productions including the Czech drama Wasteland, Swedish dramedy Gösta and Romanian crime thriller Umbre. Matthews worked with Banijay subsidiaries on several HBO Europe series, including with Rubicon on Norwegian sci-fi procedural Beforeigners, with Pokeepsie in Spain on fantasy horror 30 Coins, and with Sweden’s Filmlance on Beartown.

Last summer, amid cost-cutting in the wake of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, Warner subsidiary HBO shut down its originals slate across much of Europe, halting drama production in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Central Europe and Turkey.