Forbes Lists: Turkey's export champion local TV series

Turkey’s journey in TV series exports began with the sale of the 1975 production “Aşk-ı Memnu” to France in 1981. By 2024, Turkish TV series exports are expected to exceed 1 billion dollars. In fact, there are series with sales figures reaching as high as 600 thousand dollars per episode.

Within this figure, sales of older series such as Hercai, Muhteşem Yüzyıl, Kara Sevda, Binbir Gece, and İstanbullu Gelin still hold a significant share. According to the report by Forbes Turkey, considering that the international broadcasting rights for the series Friends alone were sold to HBO Max for 425 million dollars, targets above current expectations should be on the agenda. 

An average of 60 TV series are broadcast in Turkey in a single season. While 57 series were on screen during the 2023-2024 season, only 18 will continue into the next season. Ay Yapım and Kerem Çatay became the name that produced and exported the most series of the season.

THE SERIES SOLD AT THE HIGHEST PRICE IS YARGI

Gaddar was sold at the lowest price per episode, while Yargı was the series sold at the highest price. For Kızılcık Şerbeti, which will also be on screen in the new season, this figure is 300 thousand dollars per episode, and the export revenue generated from the 66 episodes filmed so far is 19.8 million dollars. Saner Ayar, the owner of O3 Medya, reached an average export revenue of 250 thousand dollars per episode from the series Adım Farah and Sandık Kokusu, which were on air during the 2023-2024 season.

A TOTAL OF 20 MILLION DOLLARS IN 34 EPISODES

The export revenue generated from 27 episodes of Adım Farah is 6.7 million dollars.  Kuruluş Osman, produced by Bozdağ Film, owned by Mehmet Bozdağ, generated a total of 20.4 million dollars in export revenue from 34 episodes at 600 thousand dollars per episode (which is seen as a record price in the market).

Fatih Aksoy says that the series Bahar, produced by MF, has already been licensed to 50 countries despite being only on its 16th episode. The series Bir Zamanlar Çukurova, produced by TİMS&B, was moved from the daytime slot to primetime due to the intense interest it received in the countries where it was shown. The series' sales are heading toward a record, exceeding 400 thousand dollars per episode. The series İstanbullu Gelin, produced by O3 Medya, was remade with Arab actors as “Beyrutlu Gelin”.

News Source: 12punto