Feeling Dizi ?
For Middle Eastern broadcasters, the holy month of Ramadan (this year in March) meant Turkish drama underpinned much of their schedules. Now, 20-or-so years on, Turkish drama - known as Dizi - is the biggest non English-language drama export on the planet. So, let’s get Dizi…
Titles like ‘Squid Game’, ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ and ‘Crash Landing On You’ are well-known Korean scripted shows internationally - indeed, between 2020 and 2023, global demand for Korean drama grew by 73% according to data company Parrot Analytics. Not bad. But over the same time-span, that company reported that the global demand for Turkish drama series increased by 184%. Glance, another TV data analytics firm, says in the first six months of 2023, the top three watched drama series in Spain were Turkish.
As one of the biggest exporters of TV shows around the world Dizi is now the a billion-dollar business. So who is buying and why ?
The answer to the first question is easier by listing the countries that currently AREN’T buying Turkish drama - notably the US and the UK. The allure of huge inventories (a lot of Turkish drama episodes run 120-ish minutes but usually get cut in half to make commercial hours so 100 x 45min episodes is about average), high production values (at between $100k - $300k per hour, they look better than Latin American Telenovelas which cost between $50k - $100k per hour to make according to one sales agent) and the absence of sex and explicit content (Turkish media rules include blurring alcohol bottles, and there are fines imposed for characters kissing) hasn’t, for some reason, really attracted UK or US broadcasters. But who needs the UK or US markets when the rest of the world can’t get enough of tales commonly featuring themes of family, friendship, and love, set against the backdrop of luxurious lifestyles in Istanbul or Turkey’s rich history ?
Maybe this guy can persuade UK & UK broadcasters to buy Dizi ?
Over a million fans a month like to find out the latest hot goss and new releases from fansite Dizilah (https://www.dizilah.com) The site’s founder (in 2018) Haley Ngonadi reckons “In every series, you can find a bit of yourself or someone you know in a character or two. Dizis are so captivating and easy to follow that it’s hard not to be obsessed.
As a market, Turkey has a growing, tech-savvy audience hungry for scripted Drama, (Comedy and Romance being the faves ) - 71.6% according to Parrot Analytics’ Global Demand report for Q3 of 2024 rather than genres like Reality (6.5%) and game shows (2.6% - they must really hate game shows !). To cater for this hunger, there’s a competitive field of drama production output - usually made in Istanbul.
GoQuest Media, headquartered in Mumbai, has been licensing and distributing Dizi to territories like south and south-east Asia as well as Africa for nearly six years. The company’s Co-Founder Jimmy George said, “In the past, we have licensed titles like the romantic comedy Ne Munasebet (Love Impossible) to multiple countries in Latam and MENA region”. More recently, he says “Romantic dramas Yeni Hayat (New Life), Siyah Beyaz Ask (Price of Passion), Cesur Ve Güzel (Brave and Beautiful), Ottoman empire themed Vatanim Sensin (Wounded Love) were licensed in Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Mongolia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda with New Life and Price of Passion premiering in India on Disney+Hotstar.
Kuma (The Other Wife)
Now the company has doubled down on its commitment to Dizi by co-producing Kuma (The Other Wife) which premiered on Izaura TV, TV2 Hungary’s go-to channel for dramas in prime time a couple of weeks ago. Logline for the series reads as follows: ‘In the rugged landscapes of eastern Turkey, Ceylan, unjustly accused of murder, becomes entangled in an intricate web of family obligations as the second wife, or ‘Kuma,’ of Karan – the man she loves and who is also the brother of the deceased. Confronting the challenges of her new role, she desperately seeks to prove her innocence, weaving a tale of pain and passion in hopes of winning her freedom and her husband’s affection. Kuma is a story that unravels family ties, defying the deepest shadows with the power of love and truth’. There are 100 x 60mins episodes and as well as Hungary, GoQuest media has also announced sales of the series to Romania, Latvia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Indonesia and Kenya.
Just as South Korea has been open about Hallyu - its soft power policy of promoting Korean drama, fashion and music as a way of showcasing Korean culture generally - Turkish drama is having no less success as an advert for the country itself. Türkiye’s Tourism Ministry reports that tourism showed an increase by just over 8% for 2024 on the previous year and Real Istanbul Tours are currently running tours of famous Dizi locations in the city. (https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductReview-g293974-d27057708-Tour_of_Turkish_TV_Series_Dizi_and_Telenovelas-Istanbul.html )
For Baltic states with their own specific languages, broadcasters tend to sub-title Dizi so although some territories (like Hungary’s Izaura TV) have opted for the more expensive route of dubbing rather than subbing ’Kuma (The Other Wife)’ into Hungarian, subbing has other cultural benefits for Türkiye. Dizilah’s Haley Ngonadi reports that “I've met so many people who learned Turkish from watching series”.
Industry insiders point to headwinds faced by Dizi in the quest for global domination: Production cost increases greater than the rest of the world meaning most series are made with a very narrow - if not negative - profit margins. And of course, like everything, Dizi has its critics: its melodramatic themes, sometimes outdated treatment and portrayal of women and its overly-long scenes where protagonists simply glare angrily/stare longingly without dialogue are just a few of the criticisms. But whatever your thoughts on it, it’s clear that international broadcasters’ appetite for well-made, lush-looking cost-effective (try amortising a Turkish series over 100 episodes versus across a series of 10 - 15 Korean hours) productions and a huge inventory of stock from which to plunder and its clear there’s a big future still to come from Turkish drama. The streamers haven’t been slow to acquire Dizi - Warner Bros Discovery’s Max in Latin America recently picked up the 300-episode ‘Yali Çapkini (Golden Boy) series.
According to GoQuest’s Jimmy George, “Turkish drama writing is now touching upon a vast set of themes/topics to appeal to younger audiences. While there’s still the classic family, romantic, revenge and Ottoman themed dramas for the traditional fans, more series are coming to the fore that discuss mental health and the polarization of Turkish society between the conservative and the secular; producers are working towards developing content that can appeal to viewers beyond the fanbase Turkish content already enjoys. They are being marketed as truly international titles and will bring in new audiences”. Türkiye’s Inter Medya recently sold remake rights to ‘Ruhun Duymaz (Love Undercover) to a South Koreans production group - believed to be a first - so maybe the way to conquer the UK and US markets, is through adapted scripts - just like Israel’s ‘The A Word’, Korea’s ‘The Good Doctor’ and France’s ‘High Potential’ found international success when adapted into English.
ENDS