{"id":6238,"date":"2016-06-28T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T13:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2016-06-30T15:54:40","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T19:54:40","slug":"drama-on-the-danube","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/drama-on-the-danube\/","title":{"rendered":"Drama on the Danube"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Drama-on-the-Danube\"<\/span>Europe\u2019s ever-growing demand for scripted titles is opening up new opportunities for Turkish and Latin fare across the continent.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

By all accounts, the drama fever that\u2019s swept the globe over the last few years shows little signs of breaking. And nowhere is this truer than in Europe, a region whose frenzied hunger for all things scripted has created ample space for new types of productions to prove themselves. Chief among them: fiction\u2019s current belle of the ball, the Turkish drama.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some time now, Europe has been a very rich market for series from Turkey,\u201d says Can Okan, the president and CEO of ITV Inter Medya, which sells Turkish fare such as Black Money Love<\/em> and In Between<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s really where the dramas first took off. Once global buyers saw how well these series were doing [for European broadcasters], they wanted to be a part of the success as well. So, selling into Europe has always been an important strategy for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just Turkish\u00a0distributors who are profiting from Europe\u2019s booming Turkey mania\u2014even global players now count series from that country in their catalogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have more than 700 hours of Turkish dramas that we\u2019re bringing to various markets,\u201d says Prentiss Fraser, the senior VP, global head of content sales at FOX. \u201cWe\u2019ve only had these titles within the last two years, and even though they\u2019ve been late entering the FOX catalog, they\u2019re taking the region by storm. It\u2019s been a fun ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

DIZZY FOR DIZI<\/strong>
\nWhether old pros or new to the game, many distributors of the glossy dramas (known in Turkey as dizi<\/em>) point to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as key pieces of their business plans. This is, after all, where the genre first gained a foothold on the continent, says Ozlem Ozsumbul, the head of sales and acquisitions at Kanal D.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started working with Eastern Europe in 2008, and we continue to have great friends and colleagues there who like our productions,\u201d she says. \u201cWe sold many titles from our catalog [into that market]. Because they\u2019ve already acquired and aired so many of our previous series, we\u2019re now in the process of offering them our latest titles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides hits such as Fatmag\u00fcl<\/em>, Forbidden Love<\/em> and Mercy<\/em>, Kanal D\u2019s library also relies on more recent series, among them For My Son<\/em> and War of the Roses<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, our first success was in the Balkan region and Eastern Europe, because of how close those countries are to Turkey,\u201d says Okan of ITV Inter Medya. \u201cFormer Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania\u2014it all started there.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Okan also chalks up the ongoing triumph of dizi <\/em>in these crucial territories to more than just geographical happenstance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stories we are creating tend to be quite international,\u201d he says. \u201cHowever, when we\u2019re talking specifically about this part of Europe, I think that our cultures are very similar. We share a strong sense of family values, and that is a theme that is very important to the plots of our dramas. [Audiences in CEE] have always identified with that, which is why they keep returning to our titles.\u201d<\/p>\n

FOX\u2019s Fraser agrees that noticeable cultural links are at the crux of why these series have resonated so well in this market.<\/p>\n

A FAMILY AFFAIR<\/strong>
\n\u201cCentral and Eastern Europe have always been strong supporters of the Turkish drama, and it\u2019s true that people there can relate to the family dynamics in these stories,\u201d she says. An example is the FOX hit Cherry Season<\/em>, a romantic comedy offered to buyers at MIPTV this year. Though the series focuses on its heroine\u2019s hurdles to find true love, it also showcases her domestic life with her mother and younger brother. According to Fraser, this is the type of balance that makes characters stand out in the increasingly cluttered drama space.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you get the audience to fall in love with these characters or be addicted to these stories, they come every night to see what happens next,\u201d she says. \u201c[Broadcasters] are finding that it\u2019s quite a useful tool in helping to increase ratings for their channels.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, a strong focus on family ties and chaste romances is what has helped differentiate Turkish dramas from the glut of U.S. imports jostling to find space in CEE schedules, says Besir Tatli, the general manager of Calinos Entertainment.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur series are very different from American series,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have high production values, like dramas from the United States, but we\u2019re not making science fiction or fantasy. We are telling stories about love, family and passion, so broadcasters who want something truer to life will turn to our content.\u201d<\/p>\n

CONTINENTAL EXPANSION<\/strong>
\n\u201cI think there\u2019s been a backlash to American series in CEE,\u201d says Mark Lawrence, the executive director of Europe, the Middle East and Africa for Endemol Shine International. \u201c[Turkish dramas] feel safe, and they fit better with their schedules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Endemol Shine will be presenting its first self-distributed Turkish production, Intersection<\/em>, at NATPE Budapest. (Endemol Shine Turkey\u2019s first domestic production, Broken Pieces<\/em>, is sold by Global Agency.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThese dramas are something new and different,\u201d says Lawrence. \u201cRather than just having a programming slate full of American stuff, you have something like Turkish drama, which is sunny and glossy and full of good-looking people. It adds a great deal of diversity to the schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the dizi<\/em> competition with Hollywood productions isn\u2019t just happening in CEE.<\/p>\n

\u201cThough there\u2019s a big appetite in Central and Eastern Europe for this type of content, there are countries throughout the continent that are taking a second look at this genre,\u201d Lawrence says. \u201cWe\u2019ve shopped it around Benelux, France, Spain and Germany. There are plenty of territories that are searching for new dramas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Western Europe has long been a holy grail of sorts for Turkish-content distributors; though the series have made strong headway in regions as diverse as Latin America and Asia, markets like Spain, Germany and France have, for years, seemed out of reach.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe because of our different cultures, Western Europe didn\u2019t look at our series at all,\u201d says Tatli of Calinos Entertainment. \u201cOur series meant nothing to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Times have changed, though, as have strategies.<\/p>\n

\u201cSelling the ready-made products in Western Europe has always been difficult,\u201d says ITV Inter Medya\u2019s Okan. \u201cBut there is interest in several territories for our scripts. We expect to be selling our drama formats there very soon, and that is a big, positive change for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kanal D\u2019s Ozsumbul acknowledges that \u201cbecause of the success of the finished dramas in many parts of the world, the format side was\u00a0second-tier for us.\u201d However, the company now offers a slate of format rights for international remakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have several format requests from our clients,\u201d Ozsumbul says. \u201cTo remain competitive, it\u2019s important to become a key content provider to all markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE LATIN FACTOR<\/strong>
\nThe Latin American players are very familiar with competition. Until the advent of dizi<\/em>, they offered Europe\u2019s de facto programming alternative, the telenovela.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no denying that Turkish romances have resonated very well throughout the continent,\u201d says Claudia Sahab, the director for Europe at Televisa Internacional. \u201cThey\u2019re certainly taking up many [programming] slots, though fortunately novelas continue to have their own spaces, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with Turkish dramas, Latin telenovelas first made a splash in Europe via CEE. That was around two decades ago, when classic productions such as The Rich Also Cry <\/em>(Los Ricos Tambi\u00e9n Lloran<\/em>) and Esmeralda<\/em> found wild success in a region broken by the Cold War.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe countries that had formerly been under the Iron Curtain just fell in love with these productions,\u201d says Sahab. \u201cThese were places that had suffered so much, and in our novelas they found a means to escape their problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the threat of competition posed by Turkish dramas, Sahab says that CEE markets will always find room for telenovelas based on the strong track record the genre has in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a permanent presence there, plus long-standing partnerships with clients who trust us,\u201d she says. \u201cLogically, every market has its cycles: there are lean years and then there are years of plenty. It\u2019s a natural progression in the TV industry, and we\u2019ve been here long enough that we can easily acclimate ourselves to any changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

NOVELA NOVELTIES<\/strong>
\nBut evolving markets also provide new opportunities, says Paloma Garc\u00eda, international sales executive for Caracol Internacional. The Colombian distributor first broke into CEE in 2004 and has since fed a steady pipeline of novela finished tapes and formats into the territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a period of diminished activity in the region, audiences there are just beginning to refresh their taste for Latin content,\u201d says Garc\u00eda. \u201cThis is true of telenovelas, but also, in particular, of our series.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, a pivot away from the classic novela format and the introduction of shorter, higher-quality series has become the secret arsenal of Latin American companies fighting for relevancy on crowded broadcast schedules. At NATPE Budapest, Caracol is offering two such productions: The White Slave<\/em>, a period drama that has already sold into Poland, Armenia and former Yugoslav countries, and La Ni\u00f1a<\/em>, which is based on true events. Both series have much lower episode counts than traditional novelas.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo surprise audiences, we\u2019re always looking to innovate the stories we tell,\u201d says Caracol\u2019s Garc\u00eda. \u201cWe\u2019ve done this through novelas with a focus on humor, our \u2018narco\u2019 productions [about the drug trade] and now with series based on real-life people. I\u2019m sure this is the strategy that will allow us to reach larger audiences in new territories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even market stalwart Televisa has begun tinkering with its formula. Though ready-made telenovelas continue to form the heart of its catalog, the company is expanding into other forms of storytelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now starting to produce more series, which in the past had never really been a big [area] for Televisa,\u201d says Sahab. \u201cWe also have long-running series, such as Secrets at the Hotel<\/em>, which at 80 or so episodes are far shorter than what you\u2019d expect from a novela.\u201d<\/p>\n

The expansion into new genres also allows Latin companies to branch out of the well-worn constraints of novelas, Sahab says. \u201cThese productions are very different from what you\u2019d expect from telenovelas; in fact, not only do they look more polished, they can also tackle stronger themes such as murder and crime, and even add a more sensual element,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

However, both Latin and Turkish distributors concur that the real tug-of-war is not with each other, but with the U.S. dramas that continue to fill slots from daytime to prime time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn reality, we\u2019re not looking to replace American series, because we can\u2019t compete directly with them,\u201d says Sahab. \u201cBut we are hoping that our new productions will at least be able to reach territories such as Northern Europe, where telenovelas have never been accepted. There\u2019s space for all types of programming in Europe\u2019s schedules.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Endemol Shine International\u2019s Lawrence, the real promise lies outside of traditional programming slots.<\/p>\n

\u201cBroadcasters realize that they can offer this content on their SVOD services,\u201d he says. \u201cThey see the appeal and the opportunity of these titles. A few years ago, picking them up would have been a problem because distribution was so limited. Now, with so many devices and so many services, they have the opportunity to do something different from just filling a slot with traditional English-language fare from the U.S. or the U.K.\u201d<\/p>\n

And who\u2019s to say that this ultra-connected world won\u2019t bring more opportunities for collaboration between producers from different cultures? At NATPE Budapest, Televisa Internacional is offering Yago<\/em>, the latest in its experimentation with shorter-run content, which also happens to be an adaptation of a hit Turkish drama (Ezel<\/em>).<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no lack of quality drama content in the market whatsoever,\u201d says FOX\u2019s Fraser. \u201cThere\u2019s an opportunity to do a lot of new things out there. And really, it\u2019s a buyers\u2019 market right now. They have a complete selection of anything they could want in front of them. It is an exciting time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pictured: FOX\u2019s <\/em>Cherry Season.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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