Emerging Markets the Focus of DISCOP Istanbul’s Second Day

ISTANBUL:  Following Global Agency’s Tuesday night party, held at the company’s spacious new offices, many event-goers arrived back at the convention center this morning for a day of DISCOP Istanbul spotlighting territories on the rise.

Christoph Limmer, VP of global sales video at Eutelsat Communications, kicked off the agenda with a talk titled Driving Digitalization via Satellite. According to Limmer, “satellite remains a key distribution infrastructure,” with half of new subscriptions coming from Latin America, Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

“Satellite will continue to be important, especially as the market is driven by emerging countries,” he said. “In fact, the MENA region alone is one of the biggest free-to-air markets in the world—nine out of ten homes there receive their content free-to-air.”

That conference was followed by a snapshot of the current Turkish-content landscape presented by Faruk Güven, executive producer at TRT’s TV movie division. Güven pointed out that the DISCOP host nation has exported TV series to 75 countries worldwide, with comedies and romantic dramas among the scripted best-sellers.

Turkey talk also spilled over to an 11 a.m. panel discussion, the first of a series of chats revolving around the It’s a Small World theme. Güven returned as moderator for the panel, which consisted of TRT producer Semra Korver Guzel; Altuğ İşler, producer of Film Shooting in Turkey; and Mehmet Cam, programming manager for Turkish network ATV. And though the conversation centered on home-grown content, the panelists chimed in to list reasons why international producers should consider shooting their titles in the region.

“In Istanbul, for example, there is Arabic architecture next to very modern buildings,” İşler said. “There is a lot of diversity in one place, so it is a cost-effective solution to shoot in Istanbul.”

Further sessions focused on such emerging territories as the Western Balkans, Africa and the United Arab Emirates, and Georgia.

Meanwhile, buyers and distributors continued to walk the market floor, many commenting that this year’s quieter event has provided them more time to talk at length with prospective clients.

DISCOP Istanbul wraps up tomorrow with Branded Entertainment Day, featuring conferences on the history of product placement, trends in the practice and second-screen implementations.