Turkish Television Series
Turkish television dramas (Turkish: televizyon dizileri) are wildly popular in Turkey and are among the country’s most vital exports, both in terms of profit and public relations. The television drama industry has played a pivotal role in enhancing Turkey's popularity in the Arab world. In a survey carried out in 16 Middle Eastern countries by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, three out of four of those surveyed said they had seen a Turkish television series.
Turkish dramas feature relatively high production values, with production costs of nearly $100,000 per hour for high quality series, compared to $35,000 to $40,000 for Arab productions. Since 2001, 65 Turkish television series have been sold abroad, bringing in over $50 million to the booming Turkish television industry. Annual income from soap opera exports in 2012 was expected to reach $90 million, from just $1 million in 2007. Turkish series are mostly produced in Istanbul, as television companies chose to settle there after the wave of liberalization for private television in the 1990s.
Turkish television channels producing drama series include TRT, Kanal D, Show TV, Star TV, and ATV. The Turkish drama market is marked by stiff local competition: out of the 60 dramas produced every year in the country, almost 50% don't run for longer than 6 episodes due to the strong competition among the different local channels. This explains the high-quality of its products, and consequently their popularity.
Some Turkish dramas are more appealing to women, while some action series attract male audiences, which helps attract different types of advertisers for different viewerships. Some series have political overtones, including Ayrılık, which depicts the daily life of Palestinians under Israeli military occupation.
The Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has publicly attacked the series Muhteşem Yüzyıl over its portrayal of the life of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. The show nonetheless proved popular in both Turkey and the Middle East, being broadcast in 43 countries and watched by 200 million people.
The success of soap operas has boosted tourism as well, as visitors are keen to see the locations used for their favourite shows. The Turkish soap opera has emerged as a social phenomenon attracting the attention of commentators.
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Famous quotes containing the words turkish, television and/or series:
“A man may grow rich in Turkey even, if he will be in all respects a good subject of the Turkish government.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Television ... helps blur the distinction between framed and unframed reality. Whereas going to the movies necessarily entails leaving one’s ordinary surroundings, soap operas are in fact spatially inseparable from the rest of one’s life. In homes where television is on most of the time, they are also temporally integrated into one’s “real” life and, unlike the experience of going out in the evening to see a show, may not even interrupt its regular flow.”
—Eviatar Zerubavel, U.S. sociologist, educator. The Fine Line: Making Distinctions in Everyday Life, ch. 5, University of Chicago Press (1991)
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—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)