Izzet Pinto, CEO and founder of the Turkish company, spoke to ttvnews about his company’s growth and achievements over the last 15 years, as it celebrates the major milestone in Cannes.
The story of how Turkish content has conquered the world cannot be told without casting Global Agency in a protagonist role.
The company founded by Izzet Pinto started small, with just one single format in its catalogue, but grew to become a household name in the industry, thanks to the quality of the content that it distributes, with powerful dramas and fantastic and original formats, and their amazing marketing creativity, always in display at Mipcom.
In 2021, Global Agency celebrates its 15th anniversary, which provides us with a great excuse to review the milestones that have made Pinto’s company such an important part of the Turkish success during the last decade.
As the distributor highlighted during the press release commemorating its anniversary, Global offers today a “broad portfolio of powerful dramas and innovative formats that continue to capture the imagination of audiences worldwide,” but all started in 2006 with just one format, Perfect Bride.
Fast forward to 2021, and the company’s catalogue has grown to encompass more than 150 projects, including some of the more successful shows of the Turkish dramas “boom” around the world, like 1001 Nights, Magnificent Century, Broken Pieces and Mother.
That list can be expanded further with other dramas, and it grows exponentially once you add Global penchant for innovative and popular formats, like Shopping Monsters, Keep Your Light Shining and The Remix.
In a unique trait for a distributor, some of those are original creations of Pinto’s, like the aforementioned Keep Your Light Shining, Good Singers or Blind Duets, which was co-created with Gila Kantar and has just landed a new sale at Mipcom.
Blind Duets
The format was acquired by French commercial TV network, TF1, and was also selected as part of The Wit’s Fresh TV Formats on the first day of the event.
Blind Duets brings four celebrity singers in the jury together to perform with 12 contestants. The identities of the contestants, hidden in cabinets in a dazzling studio, are only revealed when a jury member chooses them, and each one emerges to perform on stage with the celebrity. Each jury member sings three songs with the contestants and the highest-scoring celebrity summons their partners to perform as a trio to decide the overall winner. The excitement and tension create a show in which viewers enjoy not just the singing but also the rivalry between the jury members.
“I’m very happy to be partnering again with TF1, which is the leading channel of Europe and one of the best channels in world. Their production quality is amazing and I can’t wait to see the French version of Blind Duets. I think this show will see great demand worldwide,” said Pinto.
As the company details, Global Agency has so far represented more than 20 domestic and foreign TV channels and more than 90 production companies, making sales to a total of 136 countries.
Good Singers
“Over 100,000 hours of serials have been sold in the last 10 years,” points out the distributor, adding that it has signed “more than 2,500 license agreements over the last 15 years, with more than 1,500 in the last 5 years alone.”
“Global Agency has also delivered more than 5,000 hours of premium content, while developing a strong marketing presence in the industry. With its powerful programs, trendsetting formats and innovative strategies, Global Agency is well placed to keep providing ‘Content that Creates Buzz’”.
Awards and accolades have followed Global Agency’s efforts, both for its dramas, like Broken Pieces winning the Export Success Award from TET (Turkish Electro Technology Exporters’ Association) in 2017, and for Izzet Pinto himself, who received the Outstanding Achievement Award at the TOA Awards 2019, one of America’s most prestigious award ceremonies, for his contributions to Turkey’s cultural promotion and his role in bringing Turkish series to the world.
Broken Pieces
With 15 years under its belt, the company raises its glass to everyone that made this success possible, including its customers and partners, while looking ahead to a bright future.
