Discop Istanbul, the challenges to evolve

The outcome of Discop Istanbul has been very positive, after these three days of convention. For next year, the organizers Basic Lead and Globus Fairs have confirmed the market in the city for March 1-3. 
Regarding the attendance, there are some opinions crossed: a couple of regular participants said that in this edition there was 'less movement' in the floor. 'The best day was the second one, as the first was a bit slow for us', they agreed. But one exhibitor added: 'I've been coming to Discop since the very beginning, but this edition was the first time I had 42 pre-organized meetings, without missing any of them'.

The notorious difference between Turkish distributors space and the rest has been something some attendees have complained about. While the first ones have had 5 enormous pavilions —ITV Inter Medya, Kanal D, ATV, Global Agency, Calinos— occupying more than the first half of the floor, the rest was located at the back of the building, in smaller stands. The only Turkish player located at the back was Eccho Rights.

'We understand this is a market focus on the Turkish content, but if we want to have more visibility we have to spend a lot more. We will continue attending, but next year we'll leave the booth for a meeting table, which is more cost-effective, and more people are walking through them', expressed an European distributor. 

This has not impacted in the number and diversity of exhibitors. Both Italian broadcasters (RAI & Mediaset) were here; almost all the Latin distributors (Televisa, Telemundo, Cisneros, Caracol, Azteca/Comarex, Globo); Indian companies (IndiaCast, Zee, TravelXP and newcomer Star TV); a Chinese pavilion with 6 companies, as well as KOCCA from South Korea; the Ukrainian UA Formats; Pay TV networks (A+E, Discovery, Scripps Network); and NBCUniversal, which was the unique U.S. major studio present.

The Turkish strength is noticeable in many aspects. First, the players are organized and aim to continue gaining international markets: after Latin American consolidation, Southeast Asia —with Indonesia as the main objective— will follow, according to distributors consulted: the top ones ITV Inter Medya, Kanal D and Global Agency will focus on this region since 2016.

Second, quality and quantity of productions. During a regular week, there are close to 30 local series on air in 8 out of 10 national channels (close to 200 hours of original drama series per month, 2,000 hours per year). The top 3 programs on February 25 in Turkey were the series Resurrection (TRT1) with 19.8% of share; For My Son (Kanal D) with 15.65% of share, and young series Guzel Koylu (Star TV) with 11.55% of shares, according to the portal Medyatava.com (ABC1).

ITV Inter Medya has signed a distribution deal with TRT for three titles, (Resurrection, Filinta and Tree of Life) for worldwide rights. The distributor holds 5 series from Turkish top watched programs: Black Money Love (ATV), Black Rose (Fox), the daily soap Forgive Me (Star TV), Filinta and Resurrection (TRT1). 'Turkish TV market is getting diversified in content and topics, as well as our catalogue: Resurrection and Filinta are historical series about the Ottoman Empire, and this topic has a strong international demand', explains Ahmet Ziyalar, managing director, ITV.

On its prompting own 50th anniversary and the 100th anniversary of Turkish cinema, the public TV group TRT has launched TRT TV Films, a new unit that will produce 30 films before this year ends, from scripts created by young writers that have presented their projects. Heading the division is Mehmet Demirhan, deputy head of TV department. 

'We have selected 30 scripts from 900 that have arrived to the channel since last July. The TV movies will be first premiered on TRT1 and then available for international distribution. We have also signed a deal with New York Film Academy for a series of workshops with producers to train these writers', explains Faruk Guven, producer, TRT.

About the Middle East, Rotana Group, one of the largest Arabic media groups (TV, radio, film & music production) with offices in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, among others, held a cocktail to show the company leadership in television, music and movies production. 

Sally Moussa Hajjar, PR & Media Relations Manager at Rotana Network: 'We operate 12 TV channels, from the panregional general entertainment networks (Rotana Khalejia & Rotana Masriya), music (Rotana Music, Rotana Clip) and movies (Rotana Aflam, Rotana Classic, Rotana Cinema), to the Lebanese LBC. We produce 15 hours of live content, and drama continues to be the main genre along with talk show'.

It was confirmed the acquisition of 53% of Euronews by the Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, who had invested 35 million of Euros that will be used to expand the digital presence of the network, announced Le Figaro. The channel already reaches 400 million households in 155 countries in 13 different languages.

Fabricio Ferrara, from Istanbul