Turkish content has been on the rise globally, reaching all continents with different genres and formats. However, there is still room for further development. Melis Nersesoğlu, Managing Director at Match Point, discussed with Señal News the company’s next goals and projects, focusing on Turkish TV series and movies, as well as the latest trends in TV series and films, including the shift towards shorter series and the potential of Turkish movies in the global market, particularly in action genres and animation.
Recently, the company launched a new series, “I Loved a Rose,” which Nersesoğlu highlighted has had big success worldwide: “There's an international demand from clients all over the world. We licensed it to Romania, Israel, and we're about to license it to Central Eastern Europe. We are in connection with Latin America and the Turkish TV channel is on its way.” The executive is also representing content from the Turkish streaming platform BluTV, including romances, dramas to sci-fis, and LGBTQ productions.
The company is looking for co-production partners for its daily TV series projects, of which Nersesoğlu said that “we already had talks with a couple of prospect investors and distributors who are eager to invest in those projects,” and mentioned talks with potential partners in Asia, with whom the company “might go into another co-production with them if we find the right match from Turkey."
As for the context in the Central Europe region, the executive mentioned that this is a region that is “always changing, it is a fast changing region. They're eager to go for the high-end TV series as usual. They have their own stars that they quite like. And also they are interested in movies, which is really good.” She specified that some of the most popular genres and topics are daily series, OTT TV, for example short series and crime type of series, and male-orientated contents.
When asked about the potential of Turkish contents, Nersesoğlu said that streaming platforms are the main channel for people to consume contents from different parts of the world, taking a place that once used to belong to free TV: “More and more people are reaching content over platforms rather than free TV. However, free TV will always be alive.” However, she analyzed that, nowadays, getting the budget needed for a massive production is becoming harder: “The big investment needed for the longer series is sometimes quite hard to budget. A good alternative to that is either to shift towards some daily series, which offers quite good quality for value, or shorter series like 10 to 20 episodes, which are consume and go.” For Turkish movies, she highlighted the potential for the action genre, not only in Central Europe, but worldwide: “Turkish movies have a very big potential for international markets, especially as an action genre. There is a worldwide demand for costume action movies or martial arts movies or military movies. If Turkey can keep up with that, which they will, will have a good share despite the language barrier.”
Finally, Nersesoğlu shared a final thought on the potential for Turkish animation, which she explained that is still being produced with a local focus: “We have cheaper production possibilities. If they (animation companies) find a co-production appealing to a more general audience, that will skyrocket because the prices are quite competitive and the quality is adequate.”
By Diego Alfagemez and Federico Martinez