How to invest in Turkish Dramas?

A simple guide to understanding Turkish TV Market and Dramas

The best out performance with respect to the sales of various TV contents around the world belongs to Turkey; a leading country among its counterparts in this field lately. The episodes of TV series which are sold for decupled prices of Hollywood contents, the quality of the production and the great interest of Arabic world in these contents all together attract the attention of foreign investors to Turkish TV market.

The major production companies determining the fates of TV channels receive offers from foreign investors; the content merchants with ready scripted formats at hand market these in Turkey; the Middle Eastern investors who want to take buying TV series into a new level seek ways to become partners in the production of TV contents.

Turkish TV is so popular today that Arabic travel agents try to make their services popular with visits to the sets of various Turkish TV series in addition to the Blue Mosque tours they provide.

However, what is it exactly that makes Turkey so attractive in this business? What makes Arabic speaking countries so excited about these contents? What are the cornerstones of these formats which are consumed with a great appetite of desire? In this article we are going to dig into the secrets of Turkish Dramas’ market step by step and discuss several ways of investing in Turkey.

What kind of a TV market and a broadcast mentality exist in Turkey?

Turkey has grasped the importance of drama contents years before and accordingly begun investing in this field. Hit show contents were gradually replaced by TV series which in turn one by one begun creating TV stars.

The broadcasters who insisted on their habits of producing more affordable show contents instead of expensive drama productions were left behind in this rivalry while dramas turned into an obligation. There even started to emerge a prime time slot for TV series, which was prevented by the economic crisis of 2001.

As it did in many other fields, the crisis of 2001 has caused the minimization of expenses in broadcasting sector as well and content merchants had no choice but to focus on cheaper productions for TV.

The political and the economical stability restored after the crisis have enabled these TV series to emerge on the screens again and gaining more strength producers begun improving their work every other day.

The boom of TV series brought an interesting screen competition with it. The TV series with longer durations gaining more rating caused the necessity of the episodes lasting longer against each other. Thus the durations of the TV series’ episodes were prolonged for 5 minutes in the beginning and then for 10 minutes more till reaching up to 120-140 minutes (weekly) of crazy durations available today.

Meanwhile politically and socially agitated Arabic speaking world struggled to pull through the Arab Spring and like any other place which experiences a revolution they also needed apolitical instruments. In this case, this was TV content. However, there was a problem. Western TV content was impossible to embrace since it was remote, unfamiliar, vagabond and hard to understand.

Just at this time Turkish content was received like the cure for this great demand. The Turkish melodrama content with actors who pray (salat) and fasted just like themselves with a more “gingerbread” and “richer” lives created a blasting effect in Arab world. Istanbul became the top and the foremost important actress of the casting lists, mesmerizing the entire Middle East. The yalis (kiosk) of the Bosporus, splendid lives and blonde killers was more than enough to adorn this mesmerizing dream.

The same blonde guys was available in Western contents as well so why not them but Turks? The reason is crystal clear. The entire Western content included “western” men. However when Turkish content presented Kivan? Tatlitug; he was not a man who greatly differed from the Arabic stereotype which inspired “a dare to exist beside him” in the viewer. Women were not Westerners or they weren’t blonde either but they were beautiful; they were westerners but easterners in a sense.

In result of this breakthrough of the Arab world, it was witnessed that a Turkish content was sold for decupled prices of Western ones in a sense of reply to the Westerners who kept ignoring Arabs both in their business and sale plans. The content was not disconnected from the life of Arabs; there were mosques, Ramadan, Istanbul, wealth and luxury. Turkish content does not in any way point the Arabic world as the “other”. Neither was it the “other” for Arabs. Shortly, Turkish productions presented an option which fully met their expectations and excited their curiosity at the same time by creating the sense of “not us but not the other”.

Turkey did not become the topper in the competition of TV content sales by coincidence. The Arabic world, Turkic Countries and the Balkans represent population of almost a billion people which heaven knows why was ignored and no one bothered to take them into consideration when creating TV-content. When Turks recognized this, the available Turkish content was already near meeting the expectations. In other words, a little touch on the cast, cinematography (beautiful Istanbul vue) and the stream of the story considering those expectations made Turkish content –which was already capable of satisfying those cultures- a perfect match for the viewer of that geography. Suddenly, the Turkish contents became the most wanted and the most expensive productions of the world-TV market.

Today many foreign investors struggle to unveil the secrets of Turkish drama sector and to exist in this field. They try to achieve this by remotely joining the production of TV series or by adapting available contents to Turkish TV. Recently in Istanbul, I had a meeting with a scripted format seller and I am exactly quoting my sentences:

“It is very good of you to try to adapt these formats in Turkey. However, the key to exist in this sector is to actually be here and prove you are dedicated and breathe the same air with us. The broadcasters here would be very interested in a job supported by a giant company like you. Your existence here; not as a partner but physically being here would encourage people for the creation of this ambiance. ”

My sentences were actually a simple market analysis of Endemol which carried out an example of investment in this field successfully. Endemol came to Turkey and actively participating in the market it initially presented its formats thus learning the content, the viewer, the broadcast and the production of the available system. Later, Endemol has transferred the active and successful professionals to its own structure. Marching with sound and stable steps, the company begun creating its own contents and with respect to drama Endemol has progressed gradually but confidently. Eventually, it managed to be the chart-topper today with the TV series, Broken Pieces, which is at the top of the rating list.

Now let’s consider the methods of drama investments in Turkey, step by step.

Research

It is not that necessary to conduct a market research like every other company paying bundles of money anymore. Turkish market is a small one with its own dynamism. Instead of applying to foreign research companies just contact active producers on the market. Due to the number of major producers being very few, a research conducted with ultra modern techniques for this traditional market is not necessary.

Learning the content, getting information about it and regular follow up will help you grasp the market like a local professional in a couple of months.

Partnership

You cannot acquire an active role in the market by just being a pure investor and without participating in a project. Your investment does not guarantee you being the main producer in the future as well. Therefore, you must visit Turkey, meet the dynamics, create a qualified team and give some time to it. You can enable your existence as well as having an information network and human resource with much lesser amount of money than you plan to invest.

Locality and Settlement

You have decided to make a drama investment in Turkey. You venture to actively participate in the market as well. In this situation, you are going to see that your name will be popular on the market and on the highly active media information sites in a couple of days. This investment of yours will be heard by 90% of the market within couple of weeks and your doorbell will start to ring more. In case you manage to stay strong against this welcome blast and demonstrate your desire of rational existence you can outwit the “owners of super projects” who have been seeking investors for their contents for years you can actually manage to enter into the active arena.

If you do not have an already popular name in Turkey you can speed up your progress here by adding a powerful name into your investment here and get into a partnership with one of the well-known brands. There are many companies who are actively very popular around the world and well-known in Turkey at least as much as local majors but don’t have any investments in Turkey.

Especially maintaining such relationships with Arabic investors who try to enter the market will provide you a very powerful image. The work you will produce will be considered “already sold” which means you will be on the focus of attention of many stars and professionals.

Finance

Meanwhile you won’t be waiting to catch a super-duper TV series idea in order to finance your investment. You can begin by small or medium scale content production and develop your human resources while financing your work process. In addition to this, the production services you will provide as a foreign company will be preferred by many other companies seeking service as well since you are a value which settled here with already high standards.

By not abstaining from small production ideas and using little chances of your team you can create serious income sources as well. This is why you should not consider small productions a waste of time. They are going to be the opportunities for you to get to know the market and establish a strong human resources network for your company.

After you become familiar with the market and localize your company in other words be one of us you can switch on to your Drama department as a company prevailing over all the dynamics of its field.

A Little Secret

The Turkish law of intellectual property has a more purchasable status when compared to many other countries around the world. That is to say, after you signed an agreement you don’t have to make separate payments related with the sales, re-broadcasts and additional incomes of the TV series to the right holders.

All the crews and the artists who are at the part of the development phase of a production are stricken about this situation which is an appropriate one for a revolution.

Any foreign investor who promises to solve this problem in Turkey will be on the focus of attention of all the TV market and the stars and will also indulge in the luxury of working with the best names regardless of the work.

The duration of the weekly episodes of Turkish TV series, which reach over 120 minutes and sometimes even last for 140 minutes constitutes another problem. All the crews and the artists are stricken due to this situation as well.

Besides the rights of the right holders, a keen investor about solving this problem will be a candidate of being the ruler of the TV market in Turkey in a very short time.