Discovery acquires 35% of Turkish leading local SVOD BluTV

BluTV is Turkey’s first and largest local SVOD service which is globally available to all Turkish and Arabic speaking audiences. Since its start in 2016, it has demonstrated a strong growth thanks to its focus on original content and technology, combining with over 10,000 hours of leading local and international series and movies. 

The strategic partnership signed with Discovery will also make BluTV home of all the content from Discovery’s iconic global and local brands, enabling subscribers in Turkey to enjoy and watch their favourite shows, including Eurosport’s premium sports offering. This investment with an option to invest in BluTV further in the coming years will help accelerate Discovery’s entrance into the important Turkish market of 83 million people and allow BluTV to scale its penetration of the rapidly growing 4+ million subscriber SVOD universe. Discovery will also be able to access BluTV’s hugely popular Turkish original content for discovery+ outside of Turkey. 

This announcement follows a period of impressive growth for Discovery in the Turkish market, which includes the opening of a local office in 2012, full distribution across all major Turkish pay-TV platforms, launch of free-to-air channels TLC and DMAX in 2015 and 2018 respectively and continued investment in its channel portfolio. Both channels’ reach is outperforming previous years getting to previously unseen heights in 2020.

Kasia Kieli, President & MD of Discovery EMEA, said: ‘Turkey has been an important investment market for Discovery for 20 years and we are proud of our position as one of the leading international media companies in the country. Our investment in BluTV and our strategic partnership represent our entry to the Turkish OTT market with the largest local SVOD player in the country. It will strengthen our multi-channel strategy in the market and will also provide access to powerful Turkish content that is increasingly finding audiences around the world. We are delighted that BluTV subscribers will soon be able to enjoy our Discovery content whenever and wherever they what. We are excited to start this journey together with BluTV’.

Aydın Dogan Yalçındağ, Founder & CEO BluTV, completed: ‘We are thrilled to welcome Discovery, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies as our new strategic partner. BluTV has pioneered the growth of the Turkish SVOD market by focusing on combining original content production with a carefully curated library of local and international content. We are happy to have a new partner which shares our vision and strategy and will take BluTV to the next phase of growth’.