Can Okan, founder and CEO of Inter Medya, spoke to ttvnews about the company’s plans for Mipcom Online+, its focus on miniseries and its growing investments in original production.
With the goal of extending and diversifying its catalog, Turkish distributor Inter Medya continues to work on adding new, high-quality titles to its series, formats and feature films slates.
Within these efforts, Can Okan, founder and CEO of the company, highlights two recent trends that have led him to raise the bar with two types of products: movies and miniseries.
“In recent years, especially in the past few months, the Turkish feature film industry also started to attract great attention from all over the world. In addition, following the popularity of online streaming platforms, mini-series have been on the rise in general. So this year, we have expanded our mini-series catalogue with new and international hits as well,” the CEO said to ttvnews.
A NEW MIPCOM FOR EVERYONE
With this in mind, the company is getting ready for a one-of-a-kind edition of Mipcom, where it will showcase its new titles, including the new miniseries Interrupted.
The romantic drama revolves around a young and idealist journalist named Ozan who loses his life in an unfortunate car crash, and his girlfriend Elif, who will go after the people who took Ozan’s life.
And in terms of movies, Miracle in Cell No. 7 is another one of its most successful titles. “The feature film was watched by 5.2 million moviegoers in Turkey. Set during the early 1980s during Turkey’s coup d’état period, it tells the heartbreaking story of Memo, who lives with his beloved little daughter and grandmother in an Aegean town,” Okan explained.
In August, the Turkish film premiered in Mexico on Imagen TV, becoming the most successful movie in the network’s history, drawing in over 3 million viewers.
Miracle in Cell No 7
In addition, Inter Medya is also presenting its series The Ambassadors’ Daughter at Mipcom, one of the most successful titles of the season, which was already acquired in over 50 territories.
Recently, the company sold the series in Spain, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay and Costa Rica, “and 5 more countries that we will announce shortly,” the CEO revealed, and added: “We are sure interest in it will continue.”
The Ambassador’s Daughter
Ramo is another successful drama from the company’s catalog. Inspired by a real person, the drama encompasses the deep conflicts of family and love. And then The Light of Hope is a daily drama starring Elizabeth Damla Güvenilir, the child actress from the acclaimed Elif, “which carries a strong Turkish DNA, with a story that can appeal to audiences everywhere”, he said.
Lastly, the company is presenting its successful drama Bitter Lands, which was also renewed for a third season and has already been licensed in over 55 territories.
“This online edition of Mipcom will be a unique experience for all of us,” the executive said. “The value of being together with our customers is completely different but we will continue to grow our international presence at Mipcom and also at the upcoming markets by finding new ways to connect with our international clients and promote our business.”
EXPANDING ONTO NEW MARKETS
In terms of fruitful markets for Inter Medya’s content, Okan highlighted Latin America, a region that “has truly led the way for Turkish distribution in recent years.”
“Even though the continent suffers from economic and social issues, we are in a good position for our business as our content is still attractive to Latin American viewers,” he added.
In addition, Spain has also proven to be a market with notable potential for Turkish content. “With several Turkish dramas on air in Spain, we don’t see this trend diminishing anytime soon. We recently sold The Ambassador’s Daughter and Bitter Lands in the country and hope that their success will pave the way for other countries.”
Based on its solid commercial relationships and marketing strategies, Inter Medya senses a great interest in Turkish drama all over Europe, especially in Spain and Italy, but also in newer markets like Portugal. “And I think other countries like France and others in Western Europe will soon follow,” he concluded.
SAYGI IN PRODUCTION
With its premium series Behzat Ç, in 2019 Inter Medya delved into high-end fiction production through a deal with OTT platform, BluTV.
And this year, the company continued down this road with the production of Saygı, a new premium series comprised of 8, 45-minute episodes, starring Nejat İşler, Boran Kuzum and Miray Daner.
However, the global pandemic forced Inter Medya to delay production. “We made the decision to postpone the set start date of Saygi by a few months,” Okan said.
“We try to take the necessary precautions on set in order to protect our cast and crew members and are currently filming. In the meantime, we continuously use the power of social media to promote the title. We are quite excited to see its success both locally and internationally,” he concluded.
