Turkish ‘TV series spring’ continues

Aslı Öymen Cannes

The TV series such as Dila Hanım, are expected to attract lots of viewers both natoanally and internationally. The series which are recently started feature famous actors and actresses from Turkish televisions.

Last week I was in Cannes, one of the most beautiful coastal towns in the south of France. We know Cannes for the Cannes Film Festival, and this festival now hosts Turkish actresses and actors walking on the red carpet, as well as Turkish directors awarded the Golden Palm or made jurors at the festival.

Along with the film festival, Cannes hosts many international events during the year. One of the most important of these is MIP, which is known as “the broadcasters’ fair.” Gathering twice a year, MIPCOM and MIPTV bring together all members of the sector: broadcasters, producers, media institutions, distributors and representatives of “new media” either try to sell their property as a vendor or seek “content” in the position of a buyer during a 5-day marathon. With my colleague Ozan Onat, I was there to find documentaries for my T.V. channel as a “buyer.” I was there to beat my rivals and find the best documentaries, as reporters do. But here I don’t want to talk about how I searched for documentaries, I would like to talk about the Turks at MIPCOM.

Turks are everywhere

As a Turkish person, I must admit that the first thing that attracted my attention and made me feel proud were the huge billboards and banners of various Turkish T.V. series that I encountered in the fair area, on the streets, and in cafes. The English translations of our T.V. series’ attracted me the most in those banners: Time Goes by (Öyle Bir Geçer Zaman ki), Magnificent Century (Muhteşem Yüzyıl), Fatmagül (Fatmagül’ün Suçu ne?), Fallen Angel (Kötü Yol), My Partner Knows (Ben Bilmem Eşim Bilir).

However, Kuzey Güney, literally meaning North and South, was not translated and was instead left as it is in Turkish.
Until a few years ago, no Turkish television station stands could be found at MIP apart from the official Turkish Radio and Television (TRT), let alone billboards and banners. Things have changed in a very short time. This year there were five Turkish T.V. channels with stands in the fair: TRT, Kanal D, Show T.V., Star, and ATV. Along with those, various independent production and distribution companies were represented. While the distributors were actively pushing sales during the daytime, they organized cool parties at nights, which were very popular.

‘Turkish series spring’

With its first attempt to expanding abroad coming with “Gümüş” in 2007, Turkish T.V. series first invaded the screens of the Arab world. Today, about 150 Turkish series’ are being exported to 73 countries across Asia, Europe and Africa. Sales of these are estimated to reach 100 million dollars annually, from just 1 million dollars in 2007.

After last week’s MIPCOM journey, Turks are sure to expand their sphere of influence even more. This year, our series also attracted the attention of the Far East, with demands coming from Korea and China. American company NBC Universal bought the format rights of “Aşk-ı Memnu” in order to distribute it to Latin America, which was once the most prominent series exporter.

We also set one of the best examples of format rights and adaptation with “Umutsuz Ev Kadınları,” Kanal D’s adaptation of internationally-known American series Desperate Housewives. This was a successful adaptation that corresponded to the taste of Turkish audience.

Currently, Turkish series are being sold abroad for amounts between 5,000 and 125,000 dollars per episode. This means that “an expensive series” with 100 episodes costs 12.5 million dollars for a foreign broadcaster. On the other hand, format prices are considerably low. The format price for one episode is generally between 5,000 and 10,000 dollars.