THE PLAYERS “Primetime advertising is so important” PELIN DISTAS AND LALE EREN General Manager and editor-in-chief of Kanal D DOGAN-owned Kanal D is one of Turkey’s leading broadcasters with its own production and distribution operations. Kanal D is part of the same group as D-Smart. Like its rivals, Kanal D airs dizis in primetime, according to editorin-chief Lale Eren. “Primetime used to be more diverse six or seven years ago, but the economics of the business mean that all of the channels now focus on drama to attract advertising revenue,” Eren says. Top titles in this year’s primetime schedule include War Of The Roses. Daytime programming is mainly aimed at women and includes sports magazine programming, soaps, talk shows, magazine shows, cooking shows, lifestyle shows and dating shows, mostly shot within the Kanal D building. “We used to have kids’ content, but all the big channels got out of kids TV because of the competition from TRT and the specialist channels available on the digital platforms.” While Kanal D continues to perform well, there are challenges, says CEO Pelin Distas (left). For example there have been changes in the audience-rating system that have caused volatility in the way in which channels and shows are ranked. “This is important for the way we deal with advertisers,” Distas says. “We have been working with a new system for the last two years that completely changed the approach to measurement, affecting all the broadcasters. We are now in the process of changing to another new system next year.” High cancellation rates, the result of tough competition, mean channels like Kanal D also need to have a stock of alternative content in case a show is suddenly pulled from the schedule. Typically, the channel will have access to US blockbuster movies for such scenarios. The high cost of dizis, meanwhile, means that Kanal D is looking possibly at introducing a different genre on one day of the week. Distas says Kanal D is having some success attracting young audiences to drama via its online platform Kanald.com.tr: “We achieved audiences in their millions for an episode of drama.” But so far there is no business model to support this. “Primetime advertising is so important. Even international sales revenues are small compared to this.”
“Turkish drama has helped re-energise Arab drama” FADI ISMAIL Group director of drama production and distribution at Middle East Broadcasting (MBC) Corp FADI Ismail is not Turkish, but he deserves a lot of credit for the introduction of Turkish drama to the world. “I was at a film festival in Antalya in around 2007,” he recalls. “I felt very alien and out of place. I didn’t speak Turkish but, while I was there, I watched some Turkish TV drama and it struck me that I was looking at people like me — the same colour, the same clothes, the same tastes. The language was alien, but everything else was familiar.” At that time, Arabic drama was suffering, so Ismail talked to his boss about whether they should experiment by acquiring Turkish drama: “It was only when MBC got interested that Turkish drama started growing internationally.” But it wasn’t a simple process. “Our first Turkish drama broadcast didn’t work because it required too much knowledge of Turkish politics and society. But then we aired the romance Noor, dubbing it into Syrian Arabic, and it was a big success. After that, we acquired large volumes of romance and drama shows from Kanal D and ATV.” The dynamics of the market have changed since then — a warning to Turkish content creators that they need to stay on top of their game. “Turkish drama has helped re-energise Arab drama, so now it has more competition in the Middle East,” Ismail says. “Because the price is also quite high now, I don’t think you’ll find the same volume of deals done in MENA.” This is not to say that Turkish drama exports are in trouble: “MENA may not be buying as much, but we are seeing more sales to places like Latin America, Europe and Russia. In fact, we launched a Turkey-based company called O3 Turkey Media, which makes Turkish drama for the domestic broadcasters. By doing this, we control a business that can also give us titles for MENA and for other international markets.” O3 Turkey Media’s key title to date is Kaderimin Yazildigi Gun, starring Ozcan Deniz, which aired on Star TV and has secured a second season. It was also behind the recent adaptation of Pretty Little Liars (Tatlı Kucuk Yalancılar) for Star TV.
ESSENTIAL TURKEY • OCTOBER 2015
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