Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari, editor of TV Latina, moderated a panel at Content Americas where Turkish media executives discussed programming trends, new business models and opportunities for new partnerships and co-productions in Latin America.
The session began with Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, Josiah Meigs distinguished teaching professor at the University of Georgia, delivering a presentation focused on the reasons why international audiences, especially in Latin America, engage with Turkish content, current productions in Turkey and opportunities for forging alliances.
Bowen-Tombari then asked executives about reports of their ten years after Turkish dramas entered the Latin American market.
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“Our company was founded five years ago thanks to people with experience in Turkish media,” said Erdem Seçkin, CEO of OGM Pictures. “The merit of the company is that it has creators in its leadership, which is a great strength for us. We have done an exceptional job in these five years, creating nine Turkish dramas, all of them at the top of the ratings, and 19 fictions for streaming platforms, which have been a great success.
He added: “However, when we produce a show, unfortunately the monetary result is negative, so we can’t if we sell only in Turkish territories. Our main goal is to sell outdoors on Turkish territory, close the hole and succeed by promoting in other markets. Our flagship series, or the ultimate success, has been sold in 70 countries, and Latin America is one of our main markets, so we designed our series with this region in mind. We work with foreign markets and are not limited. Even if a production is not a success in Turkey, there is a chance to succeed abroad. “
Kerim Emrah Turna, CEO of MediaHub, commented on his first reports introducing Turkish content in Latin America. “The adventure was ten years ago. In January 2014, I found out that we had signed two contracts in Chile, one with Mega and the other with Canal 13. This story did not begin precisely at that time because we were looking to distribute our series in Latin America much earlier, and we put a lot of effort and time into this success. We worked hard and it was not easy to convince buyers and industry leaders in Latin America because, at that time, almost no one had any idea about the Turkish content.
For Turna, Latin America has become “very vital for us. But today, as distributors of Turkish series, we have a wonderful balance on a global scale. And that gave me the courage to leave the global corporate world and start my career. “own business. My adventure in media started almost 3 years ago. It’s quite a young company, however, since Turkish content is very well distributed in foreign markets, it actually gave me the courage to jump in and start generating our own content. without having to rely on traditional Turkish television.
Meanwhile, Turkish streaming platform BluTV was recently acquired through Warner Bros. Discovery. Bowen-Tombari interviewed Deniz Sasmaz Oflaz, CEO of BluTV, about the synergies between corporations and original productions strategy.
“They invested 35 percent before the pandemic started, three years ago,” she said. “Discussions began before Covid, and basically, during the three years, they observed our strategy and efficiency in what we were doing. However, it has been eight years since we founded BluTV and launched our first original productions in 2017. Editorially and strategically, we have experienced constant growth, although it was a challenge at the beginning because we were the first global SVOD platform in Turkey. There were two main challenges. Firstly, the large amount of free content available. Therefore, we had to differentiate ourselves with what we produced because even though the content could be very good, it wouldn’t necessarily attract subscribers. We used our Turkish way of storytelling but in a more innovative way, building fan communities, because when you create fans, you attract more subscribers.”
Jimmy Arteaga, recently appointed CCO of Hemisphere Media Group, spoke about his pleasure in running Turkish content from the broadcaster’s perspective.
“Our adventure with Turkish dramas started in 2016,” he said. “It was a long story and a lot of fun. And we don’t have time to tell the whole story because you’d never know what happened. The fact is that novels, dramas, and series, whatever you prefer to call them, are as old as human existence. The first novel we had was Adam and Eve. There was betrayal, temptation, and in the end they were cast out by God.
He continued: “What happened to Turkey? It took me two years to look into it with my team. Why wasn’t Turkish fiction an essential reference for certain Latin American markets at that time?Chile has a highlight of local production. However, it is not necessarily exported due to, among other things, the language. However, they have a perfect script, which was then used through other channels in parts of the world. And we began to examine what was going on with the Turkish tragedies and why. those tragedies that could have extended to this aspect of the world. The first point we know is that they are precisely between what I would call the West and the East because they have the more productive world of both.
The verbal exchange then turned to the topic of co-productions. OGM Pictures’ Seçkin commented, “Yes, we are open to co-productions, but we have to locate the missing piece. So far, if we take a look at the examples made in On Turkish Territory, we can see that co-production is based on co-financing, where one party simply finances the commission and the production is carried out through the other party. They do not participate jointly in the creation or execution of the order. .
BluTV’s Oflaz pushes the desire for the platform to differentiate itself with the content offer due to the volume it already has in the market. “We had to differentiate ourselves. We had no choice, otherwise it would be easy for someone. “Sit in front of the TV and switch from one channel to another. The format is shorter. Even the pacing of the content is an indication of how we can replace it. Our first purpose was to succeed in the audience that was eating content on pirate sites in Turkey. They were used to this style of storytelling and we tried to combine it with Turkish culture through storytelling.
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