Turkish TV series spark worldwide interest
Emre Eser – Levent Kulu – ISTANBUL
An industry representative claimed that Turkish TV shows have attained outstanding global success, revealing staggering episode revenue figures ranging from $300,000 to $700,000 in various countries.
In recent years, Turkish TV series have reached record sales not only in the country, but also globally, while exported series gained millions of international audiences.
The first Turkish series to set this trend was the romance series called Gümüş (Silver), which aired on Kanal D from 2005 to 2007, according to Fatih Aksoy, chairman of the Entertainment and Cultural Services Committee.
Although Gümüş was not the first TV series to be exported, it was the first project to have a major global impact that paved the way for the rest of the series in the sector.
Pointing out that the sector has developed very rapidly during this time period, Aksoy said that Turkish TV series have taken over European channels and are among the most watched programs.
Aksoy stated that along with Gümüş, series such as Sadakatsiz (Unfaithful), Yargı (The Judgement), Masumlar Apartmanı (The Innocents) and Yasak Elma (Forbidden Apple) have also achieved significant success in the countries where they are exported.
Emphasizing that Türkiye exports series to all the free TV channels in the world, Aksoy noted that a foreign channel becomes the most watched channel nationwide in their country after starting to broadcast a Turkish series.
“Today, we export an episode for a price range between $300,000 to $700,000. We are constantly expanding to new markets. If we can enter the English-language broadcasting markets, this success will multiply.”
“There are also staggering YouTube views of our series. We post the episodes four weeks after they are aired on TV. We usually post them without subtitles as they are targeted at Turkish people abroad, but they also break viewing records in Brazil and Argentina.”
