Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) confirmed to the international press on Friday that it has taken full control of Turkish SVOD platform BluTV.

CEETV reported about the deal in the beginning of December and earlier this week Turkish media confirmed that the deal has been finalized after the approval of the Competition Council. Thus, the shares of BluTV İletişim ve Dijital Yayın Hizmetleri AŞ were transferred to Discovery Medya Hizmetleri Ltd. which is fully owned by WBD.

The announcement follows three years of extensive partnership, which started in 2021 with the launch of discovery+ on BluTV and an investment by Discovery that made the company a 35% shareholder of BluTV. One of the components of the partnership was the option to invest further in BluTV, which has now resulted in the acquisition of the rapidly growing SVoD service. In February, the partnership expanded and added HBO content and the kids channels Cartoon Network and Cartoonito to BluTV, offering subscribers a wider variety of global content and hit series like The Last of Us, Game of Thrones, Sex and the City and Tom & Jerry.

Since its launch in 2016, BluTV has demonstrated a strong growth trajectory thanks to its focus on original content and content library, offering over 10,000 hours of leading local and international series and movies. As part of the strategic partnership, discovery+ was made available on BluTV in 2021, giving subscribers access to content from WBD’s iconic brands such as Discovery Channel, TLC, DMAX and ID in a dedicated discovery+ branded area. In addition, viewers can enjoy live sports with Eurosport 1 and 2.

“BluTV offers more than 10.000 hours of on-demand premium content and live channels to BluTV subscribers,” the company says. Its website lists such Hollywood content as The Last of Us, The Handmaid’s Tale and Friends. BluTV says it has so far featured 26 original productions.  WBD didn’t disclose how many subscribers BluTV has, but said it “has demonstrated a strong growth trajectory thanks to its focus on original content and content library.”

“We are very excited for this new chapter,” Jamie Cooke, GM CEE of Middle East and Turkey at Warner Bros. Discovery, said in a statement. “Turkey has been an important investment territory for us for over 20 years and the acquisition of BluTV brings Turkey’s first local SVOD player into our portfolio. The combination of compelling Turkish content and a broad range of the best international series and shows from Warner Bros. Discovery is an unbeatable recipe to be locally relevant and successful. Together we bring Turkish audiences the most compelling viewing experience and expand the reach of Turkish content globally.”

Deniz Şaşmaz Oflaz, CEO of BluTV, added: “We are very happy that our strategic partnership with Discovery, which started in 2021, has resulted in us becoming one of the Warner Bros Discovery brands today. From now on, we will blend the best local stories we have ever presented to our viewers with the world’s best global content to curate Turkey’s strongest streaming platform and bring our most successful local stories to the world.”

Founded in 2015 under the umbrella of Doğan Holding under the leadership of Aydın Doğan Yalçındağ, BluTV premiered its first original production with Masum in 2017. BluTV is the most-popular local streamer in Turkey.