Video Age International October 2015

October 2015 V I D E O A G E 26 Turkey TV Report while the commissioning channel paid only 50 percent of production costs and distributors filled the financial gap by giving minimum guarantees. After 2009, when Turkish series became very popular internationally, the networks paid 100 percent of production costs, kept all the rights, and shared 50 percent of foreign revenues with the producer. In a few cases, the producers keep the digital rights if they’re planning online services (mostly on YouTube). Nowadays, given the increased international revenues, some broadcasters, such as ATV, are seeking to return to the old system of absorbing only 50 percent of the production costs, but still looking to keep all rights. However, if the commissioning network doesn’t have its own distribution division or the producer is powerful, the producer can decide whom to give the international distribution rights to. Among the TV networks, only Kanal D, ATV and TRT boast their own international distribution divisions. Nonetheless, the competition to secure the international distribution rights of more than 100 new series produced each year has heated up and, in the process, is changing the dynamics of the business model, which until now has proven successful for all sides. Today in Turkey there are eight main FTA TV networks (Kanal D, ATV, Show TV, Star TV FOX TV, STV Kanal 7 and TRT1), six of which commission the most series (Kanal D, ATV, Show TV, Star TV, FOX TV and TRT). $500,000 per each traditional 110 minute episode (each episode is then re-edited for export as two one-hour episodes). Each weekly drama series can be canceled after its fourth episode, but usually the networks give producers a chance to tweak it by changing scripts and characters. In the case of TRT, however, low ratings don’t necessarily mean cancellation, if the series show good “social values.” At times, however, the international market can come to a production’s rescue, when a series is cancelled because of the low rating by the commissioning channel, but is successful overseas. This is the case with Kurt Seyid ve Sura , a series produced for Star TV and distributed internationally by Eccho Rights, a Swedish company with offices in Istanbul. Once a series runs it course, it could have a second run on another channel of the same group, but it’s rarely syndicated domestically. With 38 series each, ATV and Kanal D are the networks that commissioned the largest number of series between 2010-2014. During the same period, a total of 175 series were produced for the leading six networks. Even though the market boasts 85 production companies, only five produce five or more series a year, while 22 reach up to four per year. For example, ATV works with six producers. Among the broadcasters, only Kanal D and TRT have a production unit. However, TRT’s deputy head of TV department Mehmet Demirhan explained, “very little production is done in- house, even by those networks that have their own production centers. It’s not a government mandate, but simply because creativity can be better found outside.” With the new TV ratings system in place since 2014 (slanted towards rural audiences), producers are taking more risks. Over 75 series were canceled last season due to low ratings. As pointed out in VideoAge ’s February 2015 Issue, with the new ratings system, the threshold to kill a series has been lowered from nine points to about four. The risk of having a series canceled after fewer than the first order of 13 episodes is serious, especially after producers make initial investments that could reach the equivalent of U.S.$4 million per series. For example, ATV begins each season with 10 new series on the air and usually ends up with only two or three. For TRT, out of seven series on the air each week, four to six are new. Usually, a second order runs for 26 episodes while a full season is 39 episodes of 110 minutes each (the typical length of each episode). Turkish telenovelas were introduced in 1974 and range from 52 to 78 one-hour episodes (for export). In addition, demand for better wages from “below-the-line”workers is increasing production costs, which now range from U.S. $50,000 to $190,000 per one-hour episode, but, as indicated by TRT’s Demirhan, they could reach $250,000 to (L. to r.) Kanal D’s Kerim Emrah Turna, Ezgi Ural , Özlem Özsümbül The official MIPCOM 2015 T-shirt is sponsored by ITV Inter Medya (L. to r.) ATV’s Emir Düzel, Müge Hanilci, Yasin Emin Elmaci Calinos Entertainment’s Asli Serim, Emre Görentas (Continued from Page 22)