Armed with some of the highest-rated dramas of the season, the Turkish distributor is now present in Croatia with a coveted catalog for the CEE region.
Produced by Luis Cabrera, from Croatia
One of the main indicators that a Turkish drama will be able to travel internationally is its success on local ground. And Kanal D has had great experience in this regard, producing some of the season’s most successful titles.
Just this past week, its new drama, Torn Apart, grew notably in ratings in its second episode, reaching a 5.74 rating and 20% share, something remarkable for a drama airing in the summer.
In the following interview with ttvnews at NEM Dubrovnik in Croatia, Önay Devrim (OD), Sales Executive for CEE and the Baltics; and Sangerim Zhakhina (SZ), Sales Manager for CIS, CEE and the Baltics; share details about this and the other successful titles in Kanal D International’s catalog for the region.
The second episode of Torn Apart had a very important growth in ratings, which is always a great sign for a new series. What can you tell us about the show?
OD: Locally, it started in the summertime. It’s a family drama. We will follow the story of Aras, the main character, as well as his parents’ story. It will be a two-sided family drama.
SZ: There have been seasonal changes in the Turkish market, and producers were not producing summer series for a couple of years. There was also huge competition each year during the new fall season. For instance, last year we could see more than 30 new titles, and not all of them survived.
For the Turkish market it’s quite risky to do something in the summer. For that reason, producers had to come up with a good idea and a scenario to fulfill the needs of the audience and keep them during the summer. I think they did a great job in combining family drama, adding teenage drama elements, and also setting it in a beautiful scenery.
OD: We had the same situation years ago with The Family Burden, which also started in the summer, but the ratings were really good. So that’s why it kept going. I think for Torn Apart we can also expect the same thing, because the second episode’s ratings were high.
Speaking of successful titles, what can you tell me about Sins and Roses’ international expansion?
OD: We sold Sins and Roses to more than 120 countries. And the feedback has been amazing. All the territories are very happy with it, even across CEE or MENA. It’s a worldwide drama, because it has all the elements. Sins and Roses has been doing very good.
SZ: One of the reasons Sins and Roses is so successful is its formula. First of all, we have the great cast. It’s a well-known, very popular cast led by Murat Yıldırım and Cemre Baysel. They did a great job. The chemistry was great. Second of all, we have all the elements that popular and famous series have, like a love triangle, family secrets, and there is a child story as well involved.
So it captures the whole audience altogether. The whole family will watch it. It unites families and viewership, which is very important nowadays. As you know, younger viewers tend to watch on VOD platforms and streamers, while the older generations tend to stick to TV. But in this case, we see such a big growth, we can see on social media as well. There are little shorts, there are little videos. It became so popular because the whole generation is watching, there is no gap for especially this series.
How do you see the evolution of the CEE market?
SZ: The market is stable this year, but it has its ups and downs. What we see nowadays, it’s a lot of demand for fresh premium titles, especially because of the competition in Turkey and different markets as well, we are tied together. Whatever performs well in Turkey, it will go definitely to the other markets. For that reason, these markets are becoming very specific in cherry-picking the best series. They wait three, four weeks to see if this show is going to settle down, and then they acquire. So it is challenging to sell right away. But Sins and Roses, we sold from presenting the trailer at Mipcom.
But at the same time, there is also a big demand for library. There’s a nostalgic wave. I think people want to come back to the good old stories that they already know. They feel safe. And it’s also budget-friendly. We see demand for library content, which means summer is going a bit slower, and TV channels and platforms will be preparing for the new season, and they will be calculating their budget accordingly.
OD: The CEE countries, our clients are following Turkey’s ratings all the time. We are always sharing the ratings. Ratings are very important for the premium titles. For the library titles, it’s about what people want to feel. They want to see on the screen the familiar feeling. That’s why we are talking about library a lot.
Local adaptations of your titles have been growing. Are these markets ready for local adaptation of your titles?
OD: So Kanal D has already had great experience with licensing formats as it’s a well-proven by the great success of many titles. It’s risk-free for TV channels to adapt into local versions and it’s also budget-friendly because script writers are having a crisis in the market. It’s getting more expensive. Also, AI is coming, but it’s not always the best quality from the script. So people tend to come back to proven stories.
As you know, Fatmagul was sold to Atresmedia and it was adapted in Spain for Netflix. And Ruthless City was adapted in Portugal by SIC. And then we sold recently to Greece, the adaptation of Sins and Roses. Another huge success is the adaptation of Time Goes By, our long-running library title.
So we’re excited for that and we don’t have any limitations regarding the format. We adapt ourselves into a partner’s business model as well. If it’s even 200 episodes, the original Turkish version, but the client wants 50 or 60 episodes because of the programming schedule, we also sit down together, discuss the story, if there’s any third or fourth characters that can be adapted, etc…
Another reason why partners are coming to formats is because it’s a passive income as well after production. So some of the local producers, once they produce inside the country, the catalog just sits on the shelf and it’s really hard to sell. But joint forces, both companies, when they both travel to markets, they divide the territories. It’s easier to sell and license. Alba, Netflix’s adaptation of Fatmagul, was sold to Kazakhstan, the Spanish version, which is a great success because for Spanish titles, it’s really hard to enter any kind of smaller or CIS countries, because they have different tastes. It’s not only for production, but also licensing opportunities. That’s why there’s a good demand. But I wish it will become more. I think our partners and the clients should look deeper into the business model.
