CEETV’s Yako Molhov met with Can Okan, ITV Inter Medya’s CEO and President, in Istanbul. Mr. Okan talked about the popularity of Turkish drama, the company’s expansion strategy and the titles premiering at MIPCOM next week.

CEETV: Mr. Okan, how do you explain the huge success of Turkish dramas in the CEE region, content you started distributing in 2008?

CO: We can say that mostly it is the production quality with high budgets of our shows. Due to the strong competition among broadcasters in Turkey, they air high quality and high budget shows in order to get the maximum share from the ad market. This causes dramas not only to be watched locally but also internationally. Moreover, the acting quality is quite good and gets positive reviews in the international arena. As an example, Tuba Buyukustun, the lead actress of the series 20 Minutes (20 Dakika) was nominated as best performing actress at the 2014 International Emmy Awards and Engin Akyurek has won the best performing actor at the recent Seoul Drama Awards among nominees like Academy Award winner Adrien Brody and Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard, for his performance in Black Money Love (Kara Para Ask).

CEETV: What are the most-important markets for you now?

CO: Besides CEE, due to the sales capacity of our company together with our partners in the Middle East, the MENA region is still one of the most important markets for us.

The Latin American and US Hispanic markets that we stepped into a year ago is becoming very important for as well. The number of countries that Turkish dramas are broadcast and watched in the region is growing.

We believe that with the interest in Turkish dramas that started in Indonesia a few months ago our content will spread in Asia quite soon. Also, Africa seems to be a good candidate for Turkish dramas.

CEETV: Tell us more about your cooperation with TRT, back in December you announced a deal with the pubcaster for three of its series. Have you planned any other similar deals with other broadcasters?

CO: Besides our deal with TRT for Resurrection (Dirilis Ertugrul), Filinta and Hayat Agaci (Tree Of Life), we are distributing the products of all major Turkish broadcasters due to our long ongoing relation with the producers that work with them. For example, from our bestsellers Black Rose (Karagul) The Tulip Age (Lale Devri) are aired on Fox, Black Money Love (Kara Para Ask), Missing (Kizim Nerede?) and Red Scarf (Al Yazmalim) on ATV, In Between (Fatih Harbiye) and Law of the Land (Adini Kalbime Yazdim) on Show TV, 20 Minutes (20 Dakika), Forgive Me (Beni Affet) and our newest hit Endless Love (Kara Sevda) on Star TV and Valley of the Wolves (Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu) and Destiny (Alin Yazim) are broadcast on Kanal D.

CEETV: What are the latest titles you have prepared for MIPCOM? Also, this month you announced that you will launch a new line-up consisting of gameshow formats.

CO: The series Endless Love (Kara Sevda), one of the most recent series of Star TV, produced by Ay Yapım, is one of our most important projects that we are taking to MIPCOM. Again, Destiny (Alin Yazim) produced by Focus Film and aired on Kanal D is also an important project in our catalog.

Furthermore, we will launch a new lineup that our company has been working on for a long time. We have prepared three gameshow formats namely Answer If You Can, Celebrities in the Kitchen and The League. Quiz shows are usually monotone and boring but Answer If You Can is a fun and exciting quiz show. Celebrities in the Kitchen is a cooking contest and The League is a sports quiz show adaptable to many team sports.