Q&A: Izzet Pinto

Celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, Global Agency is keen to put Turkey on the global content map. The company made its foray into the format business when it picked up the local hit Perfect Bride, which has been adapted in markets around the world. It has since assembled a portfolio of unscripted formats as well as Turkish soaps and feature films. Izzet Pinto, Global Agency’s CEO, tells TV Formats Weekly what his company has to offer the worldwide market.

TV FORMATS: How did you get into the format business?
PINTO: Before I got into the TV business I was a literary agent, representing some of the well-known writers in Turkey. And at that time my cousin suggested to me, why don’t you represent TV formats? And I said, what does a format mean? [Laughs] I said OK, why not? I was introduced to the owner and creator of Perfect Bride, which was a big success in Turkey. The owner said, try it! So I took a tiny stand at MIPCOM and it worked really well. I licensed the show to production companies in Italy and the Middle East. And I closed many option deals with other territories. Then I saw the potential of Turkish TV series. I wanted to export them, especially into the Balkan countries. I found 1001 Nights and I focused it on [Central and Eastern Europe]. I sold it to Bulgaria, where it was such a huge success. With this [deal] I was then able to license [the series] to Serbia, Greece, Bosnia, Croatia, all over Central and Eastern Europe. Then I started representing Turkish films and sold them as packages in territories where the Turkish series had performed well. In Turkey there are a couple of companies who sell TV series, but I am the only company selling formats, films and series. And Global Agency is the one and only company in Turkey that sells formats internationally. This has brought us a very good reputation, so when people have good ideas they come to us. If we feel excited about it, we represent it.

TV FORMATS: How are Turkish dramas selling as formats?
PINTO: The Turkish series are doing very well as finished episodes, but it’s not that easy to exploit the rights as scripted formats. It is possible. We represent Forbidden Love, which was one of the biggest series in Turkey. We were able to option it to Mediaset in Italy and recently we closed a deal with Telemundo, so hopefully there will be a Spanish version very soon.

TV FORMATS: What can Global Agency offer producers who are looking for a home for their ideas?
PINTO: If I were a creator, I would not give my stuff to the big companies. At each market they have 50 to 100 new things and only 25 minutes to make the perfect pitch to a client. How many projects can you pitch in that time? Maybe three or four? If you as a creator give your [show] to the big companies, it could [end up in their] library. With us, there are eight people on the sales team, so that’s eight people pitching the same thing to hundreds of clients. It has a higher chance of getting sales. It makes sense for a creator to work with a smaller, boutique-style agency.

TV FORMATS: What are your goals for the company in the next year?
PINTO: My plan is to focus on acquisitions and sales. We are searching for great formats from Croatia, Serbia, Australia, the U.K., all over the world.

We have a slogan, “Content That Creates Buzz.” We want to stick to our image and to our slogan, so we are looking for formats that everyone is talking about. We would like to have more clients, more product, more sales—this is how I want to progress. I want to keep growing 100 percent a year. In the past my dream was to sell my company to a big company, but now, the more I grow, the more passion I have for my company. I want to stay independent for quite a long time. I want to become a $100-million company in the next couple of years. Our goal is to become a much bigger distributor, but always be a boutique, where we have not too many ideas but at each market we have four or five great formats and a couple of series. We want to focus on quality and giving the best service to our clients.

TV FORMATS: What new shows are you offering?
PINTO: One of my highlights is Paparazzi Academy, which is the search for the company’s best paparazzo. The second highlight is Social Exposure. Each week there’s a theme: for example, stories about being caught cheating. The whole nation sends their best stories and we choose the best five and then we film them. People vote for the best story and whoever sent it wins a weekly prize. At MIPTV we achieved great success with the Magnificent Century series and the Shopping Monsters format. We are hoping to achieve similar success with our latest formats.