The Fifth DISCOP Istanbul: An Overview

ISTANBUL: If you want to sum up the fifth edition of DISCOP Istanbul in a single word, you’d have a hard time choosing between "flux" and "change."

In the end though, "change" just shades it by reason of its implication of a process that is being managed.

Five years ago the appeal of Turkish content was such that few, if any, Turkish producers bothered with the expense of fliers, or even m+e tracks. That the country has established itself as a real player in the international content field in such a short time testifies to the undoubted pool of talent Turkey possesses. The change currently underway—partly the result of circumstances beyond the control of the country and its content industry, partly driven by a national desire to consolidate and expand its place in the international television business—is testament to the probable continuance and growth of Turkey’s importance.

But the challenges should not be underestimated.

Turkey is a phenomenally tough television market; shows are canceled at the first sign of a ratings dip, and, as Ziyad Varol, the content sales deputy manager at broadcaster ATV, notes, “To sell a series internationally, you need at least 25 episodes—in the past year or so, only three or four series have performed well enough to reach that number.” And there’s more. “In many of the Balkan states,” he notes, “it is becoming increasingly difficult to collect payments. At the same time, many of the recent Turkish sales to the region have not really performed. In the MENA region, the Arab Spring has impaired sales for three years, and finally in some West Asian markets, especially Kazakhstan, there is a very marked rise in the popularity of Korean content at the expense of Turkish. Indeed, nine of last year’s ten most popular dramas in Kazakhstan were Korean and only one Turkish. Two or three years ago, that would have been the other way around.”

But the present Turkish content industry is nothing if not resilient; a Turkish presence at NATPE Miami that Varol describes as “huge” reflects a new drive towards the markets of South America. Emre Gorentas, an international sales specialist (Latin America) at Turkish distributor Calinos, says the recent announcement by Turkish President Recep Erdogan on a trip two weeks ago to Mexico, Colombia and Cuba that the Turkish government would cover dubbing costs for sales to Latin America reflects this country’s determination to break new markets. Although Varol cautions, “this is still at the planning stage and has yet to be ratified by Parliament.”

This determination to seize new opportunities and keep developing their content industry is not confined to finding new physical markets, as is attested by the significant numbers attending the daily presentation by Andrew Eborn, the president of British ‘Cloud TV’ specialist Octopus TV, offering a "hands-on guide" to the growing number of DISCOP delegates looking for innovative solutions to monetize content, engage audiences and generate traffic in a multiplatform television ecosystem.

Change is undeniably happening, but it looks as though Turkey will emerge from it stronger and better fitted for the modern content world.