V I D E O • A G E OC T O B E R 2 0 1 1 34 At a recent Parliamentary meeting in Athens, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou asked legislators, “Why can’t Greece be more like Turkey?” Earlier, in Budapest, during DISCOP, European and Latin American distributors wondered, “What’s going on with those young Turks?” While Papandreou was referring to Turkey’s success in recovering from a financial crisis in 2001, the distributors at DISCOP were commenting on the surprising popularity of Turkish programming in the international market, particularly in Greece (see story on pg. 14). Commented John M. Triantafyllis of Athens-based JTTVFilm International: “During 2010 we saw the onset of several Turkish language soaps as part of the programming profile of the major privately owned television stations, which continue to show increasing popularity and will continue to be part of the programming for the upcoming season.” With 20 producers (12 of which are key, have very experienced in-house teams and work with professional freelancers) and sevenmajor distribution companies, the small Turkish television industry now seems to be set to take over the world, territory by territory. The conquest has begun with the Middle East and Central Asian states and expansion into the Balkan Peninsula (South East Europe). It will continue with Eastern Europe and the Baltic states (North East Europe), and little by little will reach into Central Europe, before taking on the big guys in the Western areas. The key to achieving this world programming conquest is high-quality long series of 90-minute duration that run for 60 or more episodes on Turkish television, but become 120 45-minute episodes for the international market. The Turkish TV market has already become highly competitive, with dramas being the dominant genre. Izzet Ressam Pinto, managing director of Global Agency, explained that the standard per episode is 90 to 100 minutes, and usually 60 to 120 90-minute episodes are produced. ÖzlemÖzsümbül,headofAcquisitions and Sales at Kanal D and Star TV, specified that, “the duration of each episode is anywhere between 75 and 120 minutes. [But] for the most part, the episode duration is approximately 90 minutes.” She confirmed that, “for the main TV stations, 60 is the average number of episodes, and each is aired weekly.” Özsümbül then explained, “Normally in Turkey the high season starts in September and ends in June. So the total number per season is 38-39 episodes. Depending on their successes, there can be some additional midseason serials as well.” CanOkan, CEO of ITV Inter Medya, pointed out that, “The primetime series in Turkey are being broadcast once a week and the durations are usually 80 to 120 minutes per episode.” Okan added, “Nowadays, daily access primetime and daytime series, which are 42 to 52 minutes long, are also becoming very popular.” He also explained that, “As 80-120 minute episodes are not accepted in the international market, our company has a team that re-edits the long episodes into 42-45 minutes each for the international market.” As for the number of series in the Turkish TV market, Okan reported: “There are 80-85 series produced every year. While some of these series are unsuccessful and cancelled after eight or 10 episodes, some of them can go on for three or four seasons. Successful ones continue after a short summer break into the following season.” In an interview with Dislink, DISCOP’s house magazine, Hidayet Karaca, president of Samanyolu Broadcasting Group, one of Turkey’s largest media companies, said that there can be up to 60 drama series a week on the air in Turkey, but many fail after just a few episodes. To stress how competitive the market in Turkey has become, Karaca estimated that up to 100 drama series fail each year. Possibly taking this into account, Pinto specified that the annual output is 20 series, and yet “only six of these are premium series.” Budgets vary from U.S.$400,000per episode for a premium series to just $150,000 for a “B-grade” series. Mostly, the production costs are borne by producers but, emphasized Pinto, “90 percent of the series are controlled by the channels nowadays. [However], some producers do not give away the rights. The channel always has a big share [of the international revenue], whether it takes on the distribution or whether the producers distribute for themselves.” ITV’s Okan pointed out that, “Due to the strong competition in the Turkish TV market, the budgets increase every day. An episode of a series for primetime nowadays costs between $200,000 and The Int’l TV Scene Hit By Unexpected Powerhouses T u r k i s h D e l i g h t s Turkish TV Presence at MIPCOM Last year, 41 Turkish companies attended MIPCOM. But of those, only 11 participated with booths. Among those 41 companies, 12 were TV channels, including: AKS TV, Dogus Media Group, ICOC-TRT, Kanalturk, Samanyolu Broadcasting Group, SinemaTV, TRT-ICOC and Turkuvaz Radyo Televizyon Haberlesme Ve Yayincilik. International TV channels such as Bloomberg, Cartoon Network & TCM Turkey and Fox TV Turkey also had a strong presence at MIPCOM 2010. Fewer Turkish TV channels made the trip to Cannes for MIP-TV in 2011, with only eight making an appearance. Though more companies attended MIP-TV in 2011 than MIPCOM in 2010, the margin was small: 43 to 41. Plus, even fewer Turkish companies exhibited at MIP-TV this year –– just nine. In terms of buyers, the numbers were nearly identical, with approximately 33 at MIPCOM 2010 and some 34 at MIP-TV 2011. Hidayet Karaca, Samanyolu Broadcasting Group Özlem Özsümbül, Kanal D and Star TV (Continued on Page 36)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI4OTA5