Irfan Sahin

This interview originally appeared in the MIPCOM 2013 issue of World Screen.

When the Turkish drama Gümüs first aired in 2005 on Kanal D, the channel’s management had no idea they had unleashed a cultural phenomenon and launched a hugely popular and profitable genre. Irfan Sahin, the CEO of Kanal D’s parent company, Dogan TV, explains that Gümüs and subsequent Turkish series travel the world thanks to their high production values, moving story lines and universal themes.

WS: Kanal D is Turkey’s market-leading TV channel. What have been some of the TV programs and formats Kanal D has introduced to Turkish viewers?
SAHIN: At Kanal D, we’re not merely a distributor and broadcaster of content, but also we’re in the business of making of content from scratch. We have an effective and dominant role in every step of production; we make the final decisions at script writing, storytelling, casting, direction and music. We’re developing projects with these principles either in house or together with independent production companies. This way we can be proactive and set the trends for programming in the market.

Last but not least, we strive to understand the global and local Zeitgeist and turn it into program offerings that can perfectly tap into the needs and tastes of the audience.

Having this all in the same melting pot, we’ve come up with phenomenal stories, TV series and TV shows in the last decade such as Yaprak Dökümü [Leaf Cast], Ask-i Memnu [Forbidden Love], Binbir Gece [1001 Nights], Öyle Bir Geçer Zaman Ki [As Time Goes By].

WS: The competition among television channels in Turkey is quite intense. Today, what gives Kanal D its edge over other channels?
SAHIN: Kanal D has been the market leader for the last decade and this gives Kanal D its edge over other channels. Kanal D’s main competitor is again Kanal D. We try and try new formats, new dramas and new stories every season and strive to understand, “What’s the next big thing in the market?” “What are the hidden emotions in the hearts and minds of our audience?” “What are the new ways of doing things?” again and again.

WS: You were the producer of the mega-hit Turkish drama Gümüs. What made it so successful and contributed to such tremendous ratings?
SAHIN: Gümüs has a really interesting story. Gümüs was the first project for most of the people who took part in the project. It was a team with amateur spirit, passion and patience. Those days we couldn’t even imagine that Gümüs would be such a hit. The final episode was watched by 85,000,000 people just in the MENA [Middle East and North Africa] region. We have done research in order to understand what’s the secret behind the success. And we have realized that the story was universal in touching hearts and moving people. Gümüs made everyone, who took part in the project, famous.

WS: What makes Kanal D’s dramas so successful in regions as different as the Middle East, the Balkans, and the Far East?
SAHIN: The success of Turkish TV production is stimulated by the high competition in the prime-time slots of the commercial free-to-air TV market. Every commercial TV station airs at least one locally produced drama series. There is a great pre-production process in which the producers and the scriptwriters work hard on the story, the scripts and the cast. The series are shot in HD and in internationally accepted high quality standards. All these factors differentiate Turkish dramas from their regional competitors and inevitably bring higher quality and popularity.

Turkish TV is not any different than other in many aspects. In Turkey, local production, especially drama, is very important. [At first it appears that] Turkish dramas are local, but the stories have universal elements that can be enjoyed everywhere in the world. People in Turkey and in countries from regions like MENA, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia come from similar backgrounds, we share similar values. Viewers in these countries can relate directly to the stories, cast, basically to the majority of things they see in our TV series.

WS: How are Turkish dramas received in the Arab world? How is the portrayal of women as well as issues and problems of everyday life fueling the popularity of these series?
SAHIN: Turkish dramas made their way onto Arab television led by Gümüs. They are referred to as the soft power of Turkey but it has to be stated that neither the producers nor the broadcasters want to take on such a role. Turkish dramas have begun to exercise a huge influence within the Arab audience from Morocco to Iraq—the kind of influence that many content exporters can only dream about.

People respond to what’s familiar and this is the most important point in our case. Arab women have made clear their admiration for Noor [the Arab title of Gümüs]. Arab husbands often ignore their wives, while on Noor, there is this context of arranged marriages, respect for elders and big families living together, Noor and Muhannad openly love and admire each other.