Emre Görentas, Content Sales Deputy Manager for North and South America, MENA at ATV Distribution, spoke to ttvnews about ATV’s new titles for the international market, most notably the drama For My Family, which has already been renewed for a second season.

With the success of Hercai still fresh both in Turkey and the international market, Turkish distributor ATV is now presenting a new title which stands to be its successor in terms of sales: For My Family.

The new Turkish drama, which has a similar look and feel to Orphan Flowers, has all the elements needed to triumph in the international market, with top ratings in Turkey, digital success, a story full of drama and a long list of episodes already produced.

To find out more about this title and other new productions from ATV, ttvnews spoke to Emre Görentas, Content Sales Deputy Manager for North and South America, MENA at ATV Distribution.

For My Family is the great launch for the international market. What can you tell us about the title?

Yes, For My Family is our newest title. It tells the story of four siblings who have lost their parents in the same day and they are trying to survive. We launched this series in February in the middle of the season and it drew great attention from the audiences. In a short period of time it doubled the ratings and it became slot leader on Saturday prime time.

It is also doing very good on digital. In 10 weeks its YouTube Channel reached 1 million subscribers and each Turkish episode has around 6 million views on average, so we are very happy with the results on TV and also digital.

And it’s a content very suitable for international markets so there’s also a huge demand from the international market and we already closed our first deal with Israel. They picked the series in the very beginning. There’s also a huge demand from Latin America and I believe we are going o have some deals soon.

How would you describe the series? Is it a classic Turkish drama?

Yes, exactly, it’s very melodramatic but also very real. When you watch this series you believe it, you feel its real. That’s why its being so successful in Turkey and its very suitable for the international market.

And it sounds very suitable for Latin America as well…

Yes, in Turkey we have lots of type of contents, like comedies, lighter romance, but they don’t usually work very well in Latin America. The audiences there really love drama, so For My Family is definitely one.

How many episodes have already aired?

We aired 11 Turkish episodes, which is 35 international episodes. The series is still on air until June. That makes it a total of 65 international episodes for its first season. And the second season is already confirmed to begin in September, so we’ll have a total of 165 episodes for the international market. That’s another reason why we believe it will work well internationally, especially in Latin America, where Turkish dramas air daily.

Which other drama would you compare it to?

We have For my Family in Turkey in prime time and it’s definitely a show for prime time. If I would have to compare it with another show from ATV I’d have to say that it looks a little bit like Orphan Flowers. That show aired from 2015 and 2018 and it was really successful in Turkey and Latin America. For example in Argentina in Telefe got 45-50% share average. In every single country from Latin America the series was really successful. And For My Family looks a little bit like it and it has the same director and writer.

Are you in talks with Latin America?

We are in contact with all of our clients from Latin America and they already know the series, they’ve watched a couple of episodes so we are already in the negotiation process with them. Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Puerto Rico, they are all already interested, that’s all I can say for now.

Aside from For My Family, are you still selling Hercai?

One of our stronger titles it’s Hercai. It started it’s journey in Latin America with Chile and it became a huge success there. Following Chile, Wapa Puerto Rico, Telemetro Costa Rica started the series and it’s daily in both countries and I’m happy to announce that TVN Chile will preemier the third season of Hercai very soon and I’m proud to announce that Telemundo US, Caracol Colombia and Telefe Argentina have all acquired the series and they will start broadcasting very soon.

It’s our bestseller. You know, when you have an ongoing series the broadcasters from Latin America usually wait until it finishes in Turkey and then they start. So we’ve just ended Hercai in Turkey so we expect now really good news from Latin America. Almost all countries in Latin have acquired the show but only a few started broadcasting. They are now going to start airing soon.

Will it have a fourth season?

No, it finished with it’s third season, it was its last. The story concludes, definitely. We were getting a lot of emails and calls from our partners in Latin America and they were asking about the final, because they expected a happy final. So we were even in discussions with the producers asking please to let it have a happy final for the international audiences.

Which other deals has ATV recently closed?

Besides those for Hercai, we have closed some deals for our series The Ottoman for Latin America, but I’m not aloud to announce it. It’s still confidential. But I hope to announce it soon. All I can say is that it’s going to be in one of the very big countries of Latin America and it’s a platform because it’s more suitable for a platform in the international market.