Turkish Radio and Television Corporation

COUNTRY: Turkey

LAUNCH DATE: 1964

OWNERSHIP: TRT is a public-service broadcaster.

DISTRIBUTION: Available across free TV, satellite (Turksat, Hotbird) and cable in Turkey.

DESCRIPTION: With its nine channels—thematic, national, regional and international—TRT offers everything from comedy and drama to documentaries, TV movies and news. 

SENIOR MANAGEMENT:
Director General: Ibrahim Sahin
Deputy Director General: Dr. Zeynel Koc
Head, TV Department: Dr. Nimet Ersin

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: The bouquet of channels run the gamut: TRT 1 (family, general-entertainment), TRT 2 (culture, art), TRT 3 (sports, parliament, news), TRT 4 (music, documentary), TRT GAP (agriculture, trade, social issues for a regional audience), TRT 6 (native Kurdish language), TRT KIDS (targeting children of different age groups), TRT AVAZ (reaches Middle Asia) and TRT TURK (for Turkish-speaking audiences all over the world).

In addition to spanning a number of genres—comedy, drama, docs, lifestyle, game shows, talk shows, music—the channels also cover different viewpoints with educational and social-responsibility programs, alongside news that spotlights both national and international politics.

"Our schedule has been formed considering the balance in between categories of public [interest] and necessities of program diversity that a public-service broadcaster should have," says Ibrahim Sahin, the director general of TRT.

The Turkish service acquires only 20 percent of all its programming, with documentaries, feature films, dramas, sports and animation coming from international sources such as The Walt Disney Company, MGM and the BBC, among others. "In every genre (music-entertainment, documentary, sports, news, education and culture, dramas, children’s) TRT produces its own original programs, with high-qualified productions," says Sahin, who points to sports, Turkish dramas and lifestyle series as top performers overall for TRT.

The TRT channels are available as live streams from its website, trt.net.tr. In further new-media extensions, Sahin says, "With Turkish Telecom, TRT has new projects for IPTV. New digital platforms and providers will be seen in the very close future besides new mobile and Internet-based players. TRT aims to be the leader in those."

WHAT’S NEW: New channels are on the planner, says Sahin, for documentaries and news. Also set to launch are an international news channel broadcasting in English and an HD service.

WEBSITE: www.trt.net.tr