See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/276892213

Transnationalization of Turkish dramas: Exploring the convergence of local

and global market imperatives

Article  in  Global Media and Communication · April 2015

DOI: 10.1177/1742766515573274

CITATIONS READS

16 1,205

1 author:

Bilge Yesil
City University of New York - College of Staten Island
8 PUBLICATIONS   118 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Bilge Yesil on 14 July 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

573274
research-article2015
GMC0010.1177/1742766515573274Global Media and CommunicationYesil

Article

Global Media and Communication

Transnationalization of 2015, Vol. 11(1) 43­–60

© The Author(s) 2015
Reprints and permissions:
Turkish dramas: Exploring sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1742766515573274
the convergence of local and gmc.sagepub.com

global market imperatives

Bilge Yesil
College of Staten Island, The City University of New York (CUNY), USA

Abstract
Since the mid-2000s, an ever-increasing number of Turkish dramas have been
exported to several markets and commanded high prices and ratings. To explain the
transnationalization of Turkish dramas, this article explores the political economic
imperatives as opposed to the commonly cited cultural proximity thesis. Based on
in-depth interviews with television producers, distributors and executives, it analyses
the burgeoning of the Turkish production sector, the search for additional revenue
streams in foreign markets by Turkish producers, their integration into global networks
of television trade, governmental support and the converging local and global dynamics
that created favourable export conditions for Turkish dramas.

Keywords
Cultural proximity, political economy, television trade, transnationalization, Turkish
dramas

Since the mid-2000s, there has been a conspicuous rise in the exports of Turkish televi-
sion dramas, also referred to as soap operas or telenovelas. These weekly, big-budget
productions have been sold to dozens of countries in the Middle East, Balkans and
Central Asia and, more recently, in Latin America, Europe and Asia. According to avail-
able data, the first Turkish television drama to be exported was Deli Yurek (Crazy Heart)
in 1997, which was sold to the Kazakhstan state television for only US$30 per episode.

Corresponding author:
Bilge Yesil, Media Culture, College of Staten Island, The City University of New York (CUNY), 1P 226,
2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, NY 10314, USA.
Email: bilge.yesil@csi.cuny.edu

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

44 Global Media and Communication 11(1)

By 2001, the number of exported dramas had risen to 65, with buyers concentrated
mostly in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In 2005, Yabanci Damat (The Foreign Groom)
had made its way to a commercial Greek channel and become a ratings hit (Today’s
Zaman, 2012). But the real breakthrough came in 2008 when the pan-Arab network, the
MBC, began to air Gumus (Noor in Arabic), which became a huge hit with Arab audi-
ences, its final episode drawing an estimated 85 million viewers (Rohde, 2012). Prompted
by Noor’s unforeseen popularity, Turkish producers, broadcasters and distributors began
to venture into global markets. In 2010, the distribution company, Global Agency, entered
the Balkan markets with Binbir Gece (A Thousand Nights), and sold Muhtesem Yuzyil
(Magnificent Century) to a number of Balkan and Middle Eastern countries the follow-
ing year (Oxford Business Group, 2012). By 2013, Magnificent Century had become
Turkey’s most significant cultural export with approximately 200 million audiences in 50
countries, from Italy to China. According to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism,
Turkey exported 36,000 hours of television to 76 countries between 2005 and 2011. At
the time of writing, more than 100 Turkish dramas are being exported to 80 countries,
bringing in US$100 million to the Turkish economy (Ozedincik, 2013). With this increas-
ing popularity and demand, Turkish dramas now command amounts of between
US$15,000 and US$150,000 per episode (Ozedincik, 2013). Turkish producers and
broadcasters sell not only original programming but also their remake rights. For exam-
ple, in 2011, the broadcast channel, ATV, sold Ezel and its remake rights to a number of
markets, including Belgium (McDonald, 2012). In 2013, it sold Son (The End) to a
Swedish broadcaster as well as to a US production company (Clarke, 2012; Whittock,
2013). The deal was celebrated by Sabah newspaper, ATV’s sister company, with the
headline, ‘The End of Hollywood’ (Ulker, 2013).
With the Turkish drama sector now emerging as a key player in transnational televi-
sion flows, so, too, would a celebratory discourse develop in the local and foreign
press. Journalistic reports heralded the ‘heyday of Turkish content’, calling attention to
the addictive nature and ‘unstoppable boom’ of Turkish dramas (Holdsworth, 2012;
McDonald, 2012; Ros, 2012; Zalewski, 2013). Policy analysts and Turkish govern-
ment officials embraced the country’s expanding ‘soap power’ in neighbouring regions,
and explained how the popular appeal of Turkish dramas was getting a boost from the
so-called cultural similarities, historical relationships and/or religious connections
between Turkey and the Middle East, Balkans and Central Asia (Oxford Business
Group, 2012; Oymen, 2012). A think-tank report declared Turkish dramas to be ‘an
important part of Turkey’s soft power’ and having ‘the potential to have a lasting effect
on Turkey’s image’ (Turkish Social and Economic Studies Foundation (TESEV),
2010). Egemen Bagis, the then Minister of European Union (EU) Affairs, praised
Turkish television producers for assuming the important mission of projecting a posi-
tive image of the country (Temizkan, 2013).1
While the cultural proximity argument (Straubhaar, 1991) has come to dominate the
discourse on the transnational flow of Turkish dramas, it has left several questions unan-
swered. For example, it primarily attributes the popularity of Turkish content to ‘face
value’ affinities between Turkey and the Middle East, yet ignores the appeal of Turkish
modernity for Arab audiences (Kraidy and Al-Ghazzi, 2013).2 Second, the cultural prox-
imity thesis assumes that the reception of Turkish dramas is generally favourable and

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

Yesil 45

overlooks negative reactions from audiences and regulatory authorities in various coun-
tries.3 Last but not least, it fails to account for the outflow of Turkish dramas to markets
such as Romania, Poland, Brazil, Japan and Vietnam, none of whom share with Turkey
any linguistic, cultural or historical commonalities. The notion of ‘multiple proximities’4
might offer a more nuanced analysis as it considers the shared cross-cultural genre struc-
tures (melodramas) and narrative themes (family, romance, power, etc.) to be contribut-
ing factors to the transnational popularity of Turkish dramas. As a Turkish television
executive interviewed for this study observed,

For years, we imported Brazilian telenovelas. And now our writers come up with similar
storylines, but set in a Turkish context. Different country, different city, different names, but
similar storylines: Love, money, romance, family relationships. So the Arabs watch it, the
Russians watch it, and the Pakistanis watch it. (Executive 1, 3 July 2013, Istanbul, Turkey,
personal communication)

Yet, the proximity theses, whether they centre on cultural, historical, genre or the-
matic affinities, still fail to address the flow of Turkish dramas in its full complexity. To
remedy this gap, I offer a political economic analysis and explore the underpinning mar-
ket imperatives. To this end, I situate the phenomenon within the context of the transfor-
mation of the Turkish television industry in the late 1990s and 2000s and explore the
shifts in both the local and global markets that created the export opportunities for
Turkish dramas. More specifically, I analyse the burgeoning of the production sector and
the growth of the advertising market in Turkey, the search for additional revenue streams
in foreign markets by Turkish producers, the integration of these actors into the global
networks of television trade and the governmental support given to producers and dis-
tributors. I draw upon analyses of surveys, reports and news stories as well as interviews
with television executives, producers and distributors. Among the reports I analyse are
those published by the Turkish Ministry of Tourism and Culture, the Directorate General
of Press and Information, the Istanbul Chamber of Certified Public Accountants
(ISMMMO) and the TESEV. News stories and op-ed columns included in this analysis
come from industry publications such as Variety, Variety Arabia, Hollywood Reporter,
Television Business International and World Screen and from industry websites such as
C21Media and TTVNews. In order to contextualize these documents, I draw upon a total
of 28 unstructured interviews with Turkish producers, distributors and executives con-
ducted during June–July 2013 as well as interviews with distributors and buyers at the
Istanbul Television Forum and Fair (iTVF) on 20–21 June 2013.5
The significance of the transnationalization of Turkish dramas is evidently associated
with the multidirectional media flows. As several scholars have shown (Bielby and
Harrington, 2008; Iwabuchi, 2002; Kraidy, 2005; Sinclair et al., 1996; Straubhaar, 2007;
Thussu, 2007), the rise of non-Western production centres, the emergence of regional
broadcast and satellite enterprises and the increase in geo-cultural and geo-linguistic
flows have challenged the cultural imperialism thesis and the associated process of
homogenization. The shifts from dominant flows to contra-flows (Thussu, 2007) and
from homogenization to hybridization have also been studied in detail, with the foci on
the interaction between global standards and local diversities (Iwabuchi, 2008; Kraidy,

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

46 Global Media and Communication 11(1)

2005; Pieterse, 2009 [2003]; Straubhaar, 2007). Given the expansive literature in global
media studies, my objective is not to review these theoretical issues, but to direct atten-
tion to the capitalist imperatives beneath the transnationalization of Turkish dramas and
to tease out some implications for a political economic analysis. I argue that the transna-
tional flow of Turkish dramas is not primarily an outcome of any cultural affinities
between Turkey and other countries, but, rather, it is a by-product of those political eco-
nomic factors in the mid–late 2000s that increased the drama output in Turkey and cre-
ated a favourable environment for its distribution. By analysing these dynamics that
remain hidden in the cultural proximity argument, this article makes a contribution to the
study of transnational television flows.

Political economic forces

In this section, I offer a political economic analysis to account for the influx of Turkish
content in world markets, and explore how it has been facilitated by the boom in local
production, governmental support, the growth of the advertising sector, the integration of
Turkish producers into global networks, the favourable export conditions and the histori-
cal conjuncture.

Growth of local production

To understand the rise of Turkish dramas in world markets, one must start by examining the
historical background of local production in Turkey. Until the early 1990s, television broad-
casting in Turkey was under the monopoly of the state broadcaster – the Turkish Radio and
Television Corporation (TRT). However, with the proliferation of commercial channels,
Turkish airwaves went through a transformation. In stark contrast to the TRT’s program-
ming strategy, the commercial channels offered viewers lively talk shows, news pro-
grammes, game shows and foreign content that crossed the cultural and political boundaries
set by the state broadcaster. The early years of commercial broadcasting were marked by
heavy reliance on imports, a result of the newly established channels’ need for cheap content
and their lack of programming resources and trained personnel. Daytime and primetime
schedules were inundated with Brazilian and Mexican telenovelas and American series. But
it must be remembered that the heavy presence of Latin American and US content did not
necessarily mean a total absence of local material. The channels produced news and enter-
tainment programmes in their studios and turned to local production companies for dramas
and comedy series. Beginning in the late 1990s, an important shift took place from imports
to local fare, which subsequently led to the ‘primetime supremacy of local series’ and the
relocation of foreign content to thematic channels or non-primetime slots. In the late 1990s,
there were about 40 local series on air; in the early 2000s, this number jumped to more than
100 (Executive 2, 5 July 2013, Istanbul, Turkey, personal communication).
The rise of local production was prompted by several dynamics in the Turkish media
and cultural industries. The migration of film and theatre talent to television due to finan-
cial setbacks and the consequent exploitation of the labour, know-how and technical
expertise of this talent by commercial broadcasters played a significant role in the devel-
opment of the production sector.6 To get a share of the growing market and to meet the

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

Yesil 47

Table 1.  Number of series broadcast on major channels.a

Channel Number Number of

of dramas comedies
Kanal D 9 1
ATV 7 1
Star 5 1
Fox 10 2
ShowTV 5 1
Samanyolu 8 1
Kanal7 2 1
TRT1 5 1
KanalTurk 3 0
aData have been gathered from the channels’ websites at the time of writing in 2013.

increasing demand from broadcasters, film production companies (TMC and Plato Film)
entered the television business even as wholly new television production companies
were established (Medyapim, Bocek Yapim, Mint–Made in Turkey Produksiyon, Pana
Film, TIMS Production, Ay Yapim), which are among the leading players in the market
today. The growth of local production was also facilitated by the presence of skilled writ-
ers, actors, producers and directors; the availability of programme formats and produc-
tion models; and the increase in television and film school graduates.
In the early 2000s, the overall economic growth and specifically the expansion of the
advertising market generated a favourable environment for local producers. After the
recurring economic crises of the 1990s, the advertising market began to expand signifi-
cantly. According to available data, advertising expenditures grew from US$953 million
in 2002 to US$1.6 billion in 2010, marking a 30 per cent increase (Dogan Haber Ajansi,
2011). In 2011, they jumped to US$2.5 billion. The Advertisers Association of Turkey
projects the market to grow up to US$5 billion by 2015 (Hurriyet, 2012). According to
an executive at the state broadcaster, TRT, ‘as advertising revenues began reaching
gigantic levels, the producers naturally headed towards productions with mega budgets,
and that itself meant even higher quality productions’, which translated into an increase
in exports for Turkish producers (Jay, 2013). Today, Turkish television is a creative hub.
At the time of writing, there are a total of 63 series on the nine major broadcast channels.
Given the fact that each programme runs approximately 90 minutes, Turkish television
producers roll out close to 6000 hours of original programming every week (Table 1).
Aside from primetime dramas, other local productions include news programmes, politi-
cal talk shows and game and reality shows – most of which are format adaptations. Imported
(read American) content is mostly relegated to thematic channels, both terrestrial and digital,
and appeals to a niche market of young, urbanized, upper middle class audiences.

Conditions in the home market

The Turkish television market is extremely competitive and ratings-driven. Commercial
broadcasters pour enormous sums of money into productions with the hopes of garnering

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

48 Global Media and Communication 11(1)

high ratings and advertising revenues, and production companies strive to deliver big-
budget series with star actors to secure those ratings. An outcome of this stiff competition
is the high production quality, a commonly cited reason for the appeal of Turkish dramas
in foreign markets. ‘The quality of the production, casts and scripts is very high. All
[productions] are HD. These factors are usually highly recognized by the audiences
around the world’, says a Turkish television executive (Jay, 2013). The rivalry among
commercial channels is so intense that it has led to huge investments in sets and cos-
tumes. For example, Magnificent Century, popular in more than 40 countries, is the most
expensive television programme in Turkish history. With its elaborate set – a 15-room
re-creation of Topkapi Palace – and silk and velvet gowns, an episode costs approxi-
mately US$500,000. According to a television executive involved in Oyle Bir Gecer
Zaman Ki (Time Goes By), another popular export item, ‘producers are spending incred-
ible amounts of money when they launch a new [series]. We spent more than $1.3 million
for just the first two episodes of our series’ (McDonald, 2012). Yet, while the ‘ratings
war’ among broadcasters spawns big-budget series and a subsequent increase in produc-
tion quality, there is another side to the story. The quest for ratings and advertising rev-
enues is so aggressive that broadcasters immediately cancel a new programme if it ‘loses
the ratings war’, no matter how high in quality or remarkably innovative it is (Distributor
1, 20 June 2013, Istanbul, Turkey, personal communication). Approximately 60 dramas
are produced in a given year, with half of them cancelled after six episodes due to low
ratings (Ros, 2012). As one television executive told me, ‘[T]he home market is not sta-
ble. Seventy percent of the series are cancelled within a year, and they never make it’
(Executive 1, 3 July 2013, Istanbul, Turkey, personal communication). Even the high-
budget or artistically high-quality dramas are not immune from this cut-throat competi-
tion.7 An outcome of this volatile situation is the re-orienting of producers to start
targeting foreign markets to recoup their costs:

If you fail in Turkey and your show is cancelled – which is very likely by the way – you can
still break even with the money from international sales. Over the last 5-6 years, we have seen
that we can sell to other countries and make money there. This is a new revenue source for us.
(Producer 1, 23 June 2013, Istanbul, Turkey, personal communication)

Governmental support
To grasp the incorporation of Turkish dramas into world markets, one must also analyse
how the role of governmental support, as seen in the financial and logistical aid provided
by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to the television industry, fulfils the
aim of generating economic revenue and soft power. Under the Ministry of Economy, for
example, the Foreign Trade Department not only provides financial assistance to content
producers and distributors to attend international trade shows, it also organizes trade
tours to countries that might serve as potential markets for television content (ISMMMO,
2010: 411). Moreover, in an effort to promote Turkey as a strategic locale for the global
content business, several government ministries and agencies provide logistical support
to the organizers of trade shows based in Istanbul, such as Discop West Asia, Discop
Istanbul and the iTVF, which annually bring thousands of television professionals to the

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

Yesil 49

country (Discop Istanbul, n.d., iTVF, n.d.). The Turkish government is also engaged in
plans to develop a regional film-making hub in Istanbul, with talks already involving
Entertainment Development Partners, a Los Angeles based entertainment consortium
and a US$3-billion project (dubbed ‘Hollywood on the Bosphorus’) designed to attract
producers to Istanbul with its planned Hollywood-style films studios and theme parks
(Anadolu Agency, 2013). Meanwhile, offering producers, distributors and actors legal
assistance with registering their ownership rights is the General Directorate for Copyright.
And the Ministry of Tourism and Culture offers awards to producers and actors for their
role in promoting Turkey (Hurriyet Daily News, 2013) – quite ironic, given the govern-
ment’s oppressive attitude towards media in general.
It is difficult to trace the exact beginnings of governmental support or to ascertain its
role in the transnational success of Turkish dramas. However, interviews conducted for
this study point out that government officials’ awareness of drama exports increased in
tandem with the increase in economic revenues. In other words, it was not the govern-
ment that first initiated or encouraged commercial television exports; rather, it was gov-
ernment officials who saw a way to capitalize on the popular dramas and actors after the
fact, given that distributors and producers had already been able to establish their pres-
ence in the global marketplace (Producer 2, 19 June 2013, Istanbul, Turkey, personal
communication). When asked whether governmental support was a determining factor in
the entry of Turkish content into global markets, a television executive said,

The remarkable increase [in exports], especially in 2008–2009, didn’t have much to do with the
government. The turning point occurred when Kanal D sold Noor in 2008 and it became a huge
hit. Then others decided to enter the game and exploit markets in the Middle East and Balkans.
The government [support] came in later. (Executive 1, 3 July 2013, Istanbul, Turkey, personal
communication)

A content distributor echoed,

When our programs and stars became popular in the Middle East and the Balkans, which was
back in 2008 and 2009, this opened our eyes to the economic value of exports. I would say
that’s when the government started paying attention and started supporting us. Don’t get me
wrong; we are very appreciative [of their assistance]. But I think we can take some credit for
laying the groundwork. (Distributor 1, 20 June 2013, Istanbul, Turkey, personal communication)

Regardless of the chronology, it is clear that the AKP government supports the drama
sector in order to translate the documented success of Turkish television into concrete
economic gain for the country. To promote Turkey and Turkish brands, government
agencies, in collaboration with business associations, both support and capitalize on its
popular actors. A fitting example of this relationship can be found in efforts to promote
Turkey as a medical tourism destination and to attract foreign investment to the booming
private health-care sector. In 2012, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy
announced that the government was ready to support television and film projects that
featured storylines about medical services and suggested, ‘Why not have Kivanc Tatlitug
[the hugely popular actor of Noor] play a doctor? Or maybe he could play someone who
has an accident and then has plastic surgery at a hospital in Turkey?’ (Aktif Haber,

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

50 Global Media and Communication 11(1)

2012a). In the past, Tatlitug did indeed serve to promote Turkish brands, if not medical
services. Government agencies and trade associations appointed Tatlitug, as well as
Songul Oden, Tatlitug’s partner in Noor, as brand ambassadors. One trip in 2012 sent
them to Dubai, Baku and Belgrade to attract an additional set of tourists to Turkey
through their promotion of the Istanbul Shopping Fest (Hurriyet Daily News, 2012b). In
tandem with the government’s promotional agenda, businesses, too, have tapped into the
popularity of Turkish actors. For example, Vestel, a major electronics manufacturer,
launched an advertising campaign with Tatlitug, who is referred to as the ‘Halal Brad
Pitt’, to reach out to consumers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Kaleseramik, Turkey’s largest manufacturer and exporter of ceramic tiles, used
Magnificent Century and the Ottoman palace as inspiration for its new tile collection and
saw its sales explode in Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia (Benmayor, 2013). Obviously,
Turkish businesses are seeking to profit from the surge in Turkey’s global visibility. As
the chair of the Turkish Exporters Association notes,

Wherever audiences watch [our] television series, they also see our products, and the demand
[for our products] increases. Our exports to the Middle East, the Balkans and Central Asia are
on the rise. The television dramas help to increase the brand awareness of our products and
improve our sales. (Aktif Haber, 2012b)

In addition to economic factors, the government is attentive to the transnationalization

of Turkish dramas because of what it sees as their soft power potential. ‘[W]ith [these]
television series [Turkey] can enter every house and spread the influence of Turkish
culture’, observes a government official, noting that ‘two or three television series
accomplish a publicity campaign [worth of] millions of dollars’ (Bahadir and Kutlay,
2012, p. 31). Indeed, the AKP government has paid special attention to expanding
Turkish media in regions where Turkey has strategic interests, such as in the Balkans, the
Middle East and Eurasia.8 The government has enabled the state broadcaster, TRT, to
broadcast in languages other than Turkish and to reach audiences in its ‘near abroad’. To
this end, the TRT launched the TRT Avaz television service in 2009 with the aim of
‘forming a unity of language and opinion between Turkey and the Turkish-speaking
communities’ in Central Asia (Tokyay, 2012). The government also expanded the ser-
vices of Voice of Turkey, a radio channel, under the auspices of the TRT, which now
broadcasts in 35 languages and is the world’s fourth largest radio station in terms of the
number of foreign languages broadcast (Tokyay, 2012). Thanks to the AKP’s public
communication efforts, the state-run Anatolia News Agency (AA), which until recently
only published in Turkish and English, is now available in Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian
through a bureau in Sarajevo. The agency also launched its Arabic service and a new
bureau in Cairo in 2012. By 2020, it plans to begin services in Azeri, Russian, Kurdish,
Chinese, French, Spanish and German (Tokyay, 2012).

Historical conjuncture
In connection with governmental support, one must also consider the historical conjunc-
ture during which Turkey’s economic growth and activist foreign policy were able to

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

Yesil 51

create favourable conditions for Turkish businesses. Following a series of economic cri-
ses in the previous decade, the Turkish economy began to improve in the mid-to-late
2000s. The economic growth rate increased from 3 per cent in 2003 to 9 per cent in 2010
(World Bank, 2013a). Gross national income rose from US$3810 in 2003 to US$10,830
in 2012 (World Bank, 2013b). Similarly, exports of goods and services increased from
US$63 billion in 2004 to US$134 billion in 2011, and foreign direct investment grew
from US$94 million in 2006 to US$2.5 billion in 2011 (Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2013). Although, by 2012, the growth rate had
slowed to 2 per cent, Turkey continues to be a key economic player in its region and
around the globe. At the same time, on the political and diplomatic fronts, Turkey has
been following an activist foreign policy and asserting itself as a ‘vocal actor in an
increasingly multi-polar global order’ (Onis, 2012: 144). In an attempt to diversify its
external relations beyond the Western world, Turkey follows a new foreign policy that is
based on the recognition of its ‘strategic depth’ (historical, cultural, political links with
the MENA and Central Asia) and the intensification of diplomatic relations with coun-
tries in these regiosn. Whether or not this policy has been successful is open to debate,
but the Turkish government continues its efforts to position Turkey as a global player and
regional leader. Despite its chronic problems such as the Kurdish issue, ethnic minority
rights, human rights and democratization, Turkey has enjoyed a rising international pro-
file in the 2000s, its economic growth and activist foreign policy boosting the confidence
of its citizens in engaging with the world (Quilliam Foundation, 2013). As a matter of
fact, in several interviews, Turkish television executives, producers and distributors
made references to the ‘new Turkey’ and noted how the ‘globalization of Turkish con-
tent’ happened at this historical conjuncture of economic growth, ‘independent’ foreign
policy and a new sense of achievement and aspiration. A distributor noted,

Turkey has come a long way in the 2000s. Our economy, our foreign policy have improved.
There are Turkish embassies all around the world now. Turkish Airlines flies to hundreds of
cities every day. Turkish retailers, manufacturers are successful in global markets. Turkish
television is in global markets, too. (Distributor 2, 20 June 2013, Istanbul, Turkey, personal
communication)

Impulse to globalize
In light of the volatility of the home market and the prospect of new revenue sources in
foreign markets, Turkish producers have focused on developing the kinds of universally
appealing themes and genre elements that I mentioned earlier. In general, these produc-
ers pointedly avoid associating their characters with any particular Turkish national, eth-
nic or cultural referents, but, instead, emphasize markers such as physical beauty, modern
lifestyles and consumption.9 Globally successful series such as Forbidden Love and A
Thousand Nights are lavish productions set in affluent locations narrating the trials and
tribulations of the young, rich and beautiful. Magnificent Century, needless to mention,
bears upon the opulent Ottoman palace and beautiful concubines. In terms of narrative
themes, these series are primarily about love, passion and intrigue, not merely the Turkish
national character. Forbidden Love follows an evil mother, a vengeful daughter and their

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

52 Global Media and Communication 11(1)

intersecting stories of betrayal and adultery, whereas A Thousand Nights is the story of a
beautiful architect who sleeps with her boss to find money for her son’s cancer treatment,
then falls in love and marries him. Magnificent Century, which has been likened to The
Tudors, is a historical costume drama, but its emphasis is on the romantic relationships,
rivalries and intrigue in the Ottoman harem (Matthews, 2012). The de-emphasis on
national identity and the focus on universal markers and themes are borne out of the
needs of Turkish producers to increase the marketability of their products. As one pro-
ducer interviewed for this study put it, ‘too much focus’ on Turkish national identity may
be a liability:

Since 2008 – the year when Noor became a huge success in the Arab world – we have been very
conscious of the international markets. We are not only thinking about the domestic audience.
We want to make sure that we develop characters and stories that appeal to both Turks at home
and to foreigners around the world. If the characters are too Turkish, then we cannot sell it to
Arabs, Bulgarians or Brazilians. And we want to be able to sell to all these audiences. That’s
why we want stories and characters that can attract anyone and everyone. (Producer 3, 2 July
2013, Istanbul, Turkey, personal communication)

A content distributor echoed this perspective:

[Producers] have the domestic market in mind. But lately they also started thinking globally.
Because they have to. The home market is full of uncertainties. Imagine, you are a producer and
you make an expensive drama with star actors, but it does not get enough ratings. The channel
cancels it. What are you going to do? Kiss all that investment goodbye? So now [producers] are
naturally thinking about the foreign markets. They are paying more attention to human stories,
global stories, and not just Turkish stories. Because they want to be able sell abroad. (Distributor
3, 21 June 2013, Istanbul, Turkey, personal communication)

The presence of melodramatic storylines and universal themes, and the de-emphasis
on national identity along with the market reorientation are all aligned with the concept
of delocalization – that is, the ‘minimization of certain kinds of cultural specificities in a
cultural product to lower the possibility of a cultural discount by the foreign audience’
(Straubhaar, 2007: 170). If characters are ‘too Turkish’, they might ‘turn off’ global
viewers and ‘decrease the show’s marketability’ (Producer 3, 2 July 2013, Istanbul,
Turkey, personal communication). This is why storylines and characters are made ‘odor-
less’ and intended to avoid ‘the smell’ of any Turkish national identity, to borrow
Iwabuchi’s (2002) term.10

Conditions in importing countries

Another important factor to consider is the market conditions in countries which import
Turkish dramas. Due to space limitations, I cannot make a full-fledged market analysis
of importing countries, but, based on interview findings and available data, I note that the
transnational flow of Turkish dramas is partly an outcome of global and regional shifts,
both economic and political. For example, in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis,
many Balkan and Eastern European markets witnessed a decline in local production and

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

Yesil 53

an increase in demand for foreign programmes to fill the newly available airtime, pre-
senting an invaluable business opportunity for Turkish producers and distributors to
show their wares. As a television buyer from the Balkans said, the sovereign debt crisis
in Greece and the budget cuts and closing of local production companies in small coun-
tries such as Croatia led to an increase in demand for Turkish dramas, which the buyers
in these countries found to be of high quality and affordable, especially as compared to
US productions (Buyer 1, 21 June 2013, Istanbul, Turkey, personal communication).
Elsewhere in the Middle East, the Arab Spring and the subsequent political turmoil led
to a decline in traditional production centres such as those in Cairo and Damascus and
created new opportunities for Turkish producers and distributors. And, yet, while the
Arab Spring negatively affected local production, it ironically led the way to the emer-
gence of new channels, which translated into potential customers for Turkish exporters.
As dozens of new local and satellite channels got launched, and television viewership
and ad spending increased, Turkish dramas were able to provide ‘high-budget attrac-
tions’ that helped Arab television executives to fill airtime (Buyer 2, 20 June 2013,
Istanbul, Turkey, personal communication).

Integration into the global television trade

As mentioned earlier, the increase in production output and quality, the need to globalize
on the part of producers and the favourable market conditions in importing countries
have all played a role in the transnationalization of Turkish dramas. However, one must
also acknowledge that this would not have been possible without the integration of
Turkish distributors into the global networks of television trade. As Havens (2006),
Bielby and Harrington (2008) and Kuipers (2012) note, buyers and sellers are the main
actors in the ‘diffusion of programs and practices into national television industries and,
from there, to people’s living rooms’ (p. 554).
Although it would be ideal to explore the role of both the buyers and the sellers of
Turkish content, for reasons of accessibility and logistics, I focus primarily on sellers in
this article. Given that the three leading distribution companies in Turkey – that is, the
Global Agency, ITV Inter Medya and Calinos Entertainment – comprise the major players
in the outflow of Turkish content, it might be useful to take a closer look at their global
networking.11 Global Agency started in 2006 by selling reality TV formats and made its
big break in 2008 when it sold A Thousand Nights to a number of Balkan countries in
2008. In 2011, it sold Magnificent Century to the Middle East and, within two  years,
expanded its roster of buyers to more than 50 (Marka, Lisans ve Medya Dergi, 2013). In
2012, it acquired the Australian company, World Wide Entertainment, to distribute
English-language content worldwide (TTVNews, 2013). That same year, it sold the rights
for Forbidden Love to Telemundo, which adopted the series as Pasión Prohibida and is
now broadcasting it in the United States and Latin America (Mezzera, 2013). The com-
pany also has deals with Venevision International, a Venezuelan production house; with
Mega, a leading Greek channel; and with Miditech, an Indian production company.
ITV Inter Medya, founded in 1992 as a film distribution company serving the Turkish
domestic market, began selling television content to Central and Eastern Europe,
Russia, Central Asia and the Baltic states in 2001 (ITV Inter Medya, 2013). More

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

54 Global Media and Communication 11(1)

recently, the company has been focusing on the Latin American market and sold Derin
Sular (Deep Waters) to a Latin American distribution company in 2013 (Gazeteciler,
2013). Taking a slightly different path is Calinos Entertainment, which was founded in
1997 in Los Angeles to sell American and Latin American content to Central Asian
republics. In 2001, it opened an office in Istanbul and began selling Turkish content to
Central Asia, the Middle East and the Balkans, thus exploiting the fact that ‘Turkey
serves as a bridge between European and Asian cultures’ (Calinos Entertainment, 2013).
The company was the first distributor to export a Turkish drama, Deli Yurek (Crazy
Heart), to Kazakhstan in 2001. Since then, Calinos Entertainment has sold close to
26,000 hours of programming to 61 countries ranging from Russia to Malaysia, Austria
to Brunei (Calinos Entertainment, 2013).
Aside from these three major distributors, leading broadcast channels and production
companies have also entered the export business. Since the late 2000s, channels such as
ATV, Kanal D and Star TV have launched their own sales units and major production
companies have struck exclusive deals with global distributors. For example, the sale of
broadcasting and remake rights of Son (The End) is the result of the partnership between
Turkish producer Ay Yapim and the global distributor, Sparks Network/Eccho Rights.

Conclusion
There is no doubt that Turkey has recently emerged as a key player in transnational tel-
evision flows. Since the mid-2000s, an ever-increasing number of Turkish dramas have
been exported to several markets and commanded high prices and ratings. To explain the
global popularity of Turkish television, media analysts have generally relied on the
notion of cultural proximity and assumed that Turkish dramas are being received posi-
tively in any given culture/society, thanks to shared cultural values, vastly underestimat-
ing the potential negative responses arising out of the particular historical contexts and/
or internal differences within that society.12 Some of the issues that get overlooked in the
cultural proximity discourse include the lingering feelings of resentment towards
Ottoman rule in the Balkans and the Middle East; the misgivings about Turkish dramas’
Westernized, secular and liberal vision (Yusuf, 2013); and the concerns about both the
so-called damage these dramas pose to moral and religious values (Jafar, 2012) and/or
the negative economic impact they have on the local television industry. More impor-
tantly, the unduly narrow focus on the notion of cultural proximity has led to the omis-
sion of the economic imperatives behind the transnationalization of Turkish content,
most prominently those having to do with the development of the Turkish television
industry and its global integration in the late 1990s and 2000s. To understand the ascend-
ancy of Turkish dramas in the transnational field, I explored this broader context which
facilitated the circulation of Turkish dramas, and focused on the changes in the Turkish
television industry; the convergence of global standards, formats and genres with local
elements in Turkish dramas; the governmental support and the historical conjuncture;
and the global networking and market orientation of Turkish producers and distributors.
While this article has attempted a preliminary look at the transnationalization of
Turkish dramas, obviously, there is more research to be done. In-depth analyses of the
media markets in countries which import Turkish dramas as well as qualitative field

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

Yesil 55

research on global viewership can provide a more nuanced discussion of the appeal of
Turkish dramas. In addition, the soft power argument that associates Turkish television
exports with Turkey’s so-called increasing cultural, political, economic influence in the
MENA region merits further research. At the same time, it is likely that the global popu-
larity of Turkish dramas has not yet run its full course. Despite some over-confident
statements by Turkish producers and distributors, there are those who warn against the
likelihood of Turkish dramas losing ground because of rising prices, for example. At a
panel discussion I attended at the 2013 iTVF, panellists noted that Turkish dramas have
become economically ‘unsustainable’ and will likely lose market shares in coming years.
Moreover, geopolitical shifts in the Middle East might also impact Turkey’s drama
exports. In August 2013, several Egyptian channels launched a boycott against Turkish
dramas to protest the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s criticism of the Egyptian mili-
tary (Erdogan had urged the United Nations (UN) to intervene in Egypt after the military
removed Mohammed Mursi from office). Egyptian television executives said they were
upset with Erdogan’s intervention in Egypt’s domestic affairs and wanted to send Turkey
a message by halting the broadcasts of Turkish programmes (Alreedy, 2013). In light of
the changing economic dynamics of global television trade and the shifting power align-
ments in global affairs, then, there is no doubt that scholars will need to revisit the trans-
national flow of Turkish dramas.

Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or
not-for-profit sectors.

Notes
  1. Foreign policy analysts and Turkish government officials have claimed that the popularity
of Turkish dramas is both an instrument and an outcome of Turkey’s expanding soft power
– especially in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and Eurasia. The associa-
tion between Turkish popular culture and soft power definitely merits further research, but,
because of space limitations, I am not able to discuss it here in detail.
  2. Kraidy and Al-Ghazzi (2013) direct attention to the fact that Turks and Arabs do not speak
the same language and their relationship has been mostly fraught with tension because of the
four-century-long Ottoman rule in the region. Instead, they note that Turkish dramas – espe-
cially those with social themes – are popular among Arab audiences because they conjure
up an ‘accessible modernity’ and offer them a ‘seductive “package” of European, Muslim,
secular and capitalist identities’, which blends elements of Western modernity, secularism,
religion and economic prosperity (p. 26).
  3. For example, Salamandra (2012), in her analysis of the reception of Noor in the Middle
East, shows that the series created not only a media sensation but also a backlash among
Arabs. According to Salamandra, the panic caused by Noor was primarily the result of the
‘social discomfort provoked by Arab women’s erotic spectatorship’, which centred on the
male character (47), but, at a deeper level, it also illustrated Arabs’ anxieties around Turkish
modernity and their sense of suspicion towards Turkey. Other Turkish dramas also elicited
unfavourable reactions in different parts of the world. For example, in Iran, officials blamed
Turkish dramas for the increase in divorce rates, destabilization of the Iranian family and the
erosion of taboos around premarital sex and adultery, and in Uzbekistan, state-owned TV

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

56 Global Media and Communication 11(1)

channels removed Turkish dramas because of their ‘inappropriate material’ (Jones, 2013).
In Greece, the ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn Party condemned Magnificent Century for its
so-called Turkish propaganda, while a Greek producer blamed the show for the ‘de-Helleni-
zation’ of Greek television and for shrinking the local production sector (Moore, 2013). In
2012, Macedonia passed a bill to restrict the broadcast of the various Turkish series during
primetime and replace them with ‘national’ programmes. Referring to the Ottoman rule of the
Balkans, the Minister of Information and Society said, ‘[Turkish shows] are all fascinating,
but to stay under Turkish servitude for 500 years is enough’ (Hurriyet Daily News, 2012a).
  4. In his analysis of the Eastern Europeans’ and Russians’ penchant for Brazilian telenovelas,
Straubhaar (2007) uses the term “multiple proximities” to account for television flows
between cultures that do not necessarily have similar make-ups. “Multiple proximities”
refer to the shared appeal of certain genre structures (e.g. melodramas), themes (e.g. family,
romance, power, money) or social values (e.g. religious values, hard work, upward mobility).
(pp. 199–202).
  5. Although the total number of interviews is 28, in this article, I do not necessarily use direct
quotes from all of them. To protect the anonymity of the participants, I identify them as ‘pro-
ducer’, ‘distributor’, ‘executive’.
  6. I want to thank Beste Atvur for bringing this to my attention.
  7. A telling example is Fatih, the series about the life of the Ottoman sultan who conquered
Istanbul. Launched in October 2013, the series was shot on a US$10 million sound stage
complete with palace, port, Turkish bath, palace gardens and lavish costumes (Producer 4, 18
July 2013, Istanbul, Turkey, personal communication), but was cancelled after five episodes
because of low ratings.
  8. It is important to remember that the AKP government is not the first to merge public com-
munication and foreign policy. In the 1990s, the then government launched transnational
television channels, the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT)-INT to reach out to
Turkish immigrants in Europe and the TRT-Eurasia to target Turkish-speaking audiences in
Caucasus and Central Asia.
  9. Exceptions include Valley of the Wolves, the televised political drama and its film versions.
While the series deals with Turkey’s internal political issues, the film, Valley of the Wolves:
Iraq (2006), is about the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq and portrays American char-
acters as occupiers and Turks as guardians of the Middle East. The other film, Valley of the
Wolves: Palestine (2011), revisits the Israeli flotilla raid of 2010 and tells the story of the
Turkish hero who avenges those who died during the raid, and predictably depicts the Israelis
as murderers. The films have been popular with Middle Eastern audiences, but have not been
exported on a global scale.
10. Iwabuchi (2002), in his analysis of the global success of Japanese popular culture in the
1990s, argues that Japanese producers minimized the ‘Japanese-ness’ of video games, Manga
comics, animated television and film to make them more marketable to global audiences.
11. This identification is based on interview findings and data gathered from the reports pub-
lished by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Istanbul Chamber of Certified Public
Accountants (ISMMMO).
12. See Iwabuchi (2002: 132).

References
Aktif Haber (2012a) Dizi yildizlari ‘hizmet ihracati elcisi’ olacak [Drama stars will be ‘ambassa-
dors of service exports’], 28 August. Available at: http://www.aktifhaber.com/dizi-yildizlari-
ihracat-elcisi-olacak-653164h.htm (accessed May 2013).

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

Yesil 57

Aktif Haber (2012b) Turkiye Brezilya’ya da dizi ihrac edecek [Turkey will export television
series to Brazil, too], 10 March. Available at: http://www.aktifhaber.com/turkiye-brezilyaya-
da-dizi-ihrac-edecek-569657h.htm (accessed May 2013).
Alreedy A (2013) Egypt TV channels boycott Turkish dramas in Erdogan protest. Al Arabiya, 18
August. Available at: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/media/2013/08/18/Egypt-TV-channels-
boycott-Turkish-drama-in-Erdogan-protest.html (accessed September 2013).
Anadolu Agency (2013) Hollywood on Bosphorus on the way, 5 April. Available at: http://www.
aa.com.tr/en/rss/154787–hollywood-on-bosphorus-on-the-way (accessed May 2013).
Bahadir OD and Kutlay M (2012) Turkey’s Power Capacity in the Middle East. Ankara: USAK
Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies.
Benmayor G (2013) The effect of ‘Muhtesem Yuzyil’ on ceramic sector. Hurriyet Daily News,
15 January. Available at: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-effect-of-muhtesem-yuzyil-
on-ceramic-sector-.aspx?pageID=449&nID=39062&NewsCatID=402 (accessed May 2013).
Bielby DD and Harrington CL (2008) Global TV: Exporting Television and Culture in the World
Market. New York: New York University Press.
Calinos Entertainment (2013) Available at: http://www.calinosentertainment.com (accessed June
2013).
Clarke S (2012) Sweden’s SVT buys hot Turkish drama. Television Business International, 27
September. Available at: http://tbivision.com/news/2012/09/swedens-svt-buys-hit-turkish-
drama/16804/ (accessed May 2013).
Discop Istanbul (n.d.) #1 Content and Adaptation Rights Market for Turkey, CEE, MENA and CIS
Countries. Available at: http://discopistanbul.com/eurasia-premier-tv-and-online-content-
industry-gathering/ (accessed June 2013).
Dogan Haber Ajansi (2011) Reklamcilar Dernegi 2010 reklam yatirimlarini acikladi, 7 March.
Available at: http://www.dha.com.tr/reklamcilar-dernegi-2010-reklam-yatirimlarini-acikladi_
146714.html (accessed May 2013).
Gazeteciler (2013) Latin Amerika’da yayinlanacak ilk Turk dizisi, 24 April. Available at: http://
www.gazeteciler.com/diziler/latin-amerikada-yayinlanacak-ilk-turk-dizisi-65439h.html
(accessed May 2013).
Havens T (2006) Global Television Marketplace. London: British Film Institute.
Holdsworth N (2012) International TV execs talk Turkey. Variety. Available at: http://variety.
com/2012/tv/news/international-tv-execs-talk-turkey-1118051288/ Accessed September,
2013.
Hurriyet (2012) Reklamverenler Dernegi 12. olagan genel kurulu yapildi. Available at: http://
www.hurriyet.com.tr/ekonomi/20083537.asp (accessed May 2013).
Hurriyet Daily News (2012a) Macedonia bans Turkish soap operas, 14 November.
Available at: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/macedonia-bans-turkish-soap-operas.
aspx?pageID=238&nid=34636 (accessed May 2013).
Hurriyet Daily News (2012b) Turkish stars Tatlitug and Oden visit Dubai. Available at: http://
www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-stars-tatlitug-and-oden-visit-dubai-.aspx (accessed
September 2013).
Hurriyet Daily News (2013) Turkish dramas receive tourism awards, 18 January. Available at:
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-dramas-receive-tourism-awards-.aspx?pageID=2
38&nID=39320&NewsCatID=381 (accessed September 2013).
Istanbul Chamber of Certified Public Accountants (ISMMMO) (2010) Dizi ekonomisi [Economics
of television series], 11 July. Available at: http://archive.ismmmo.org.tr/docs/yayinlar/kita-
plar/2010/10_10%20dizi%20arastirmasi.pdf (accessed May 2013).
iTVF(n.d.) Istanbul Television Forum and Fair. Available at: http://www.istanbultvforumfair.
com/en_US/# (accessed May 2013).

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

58 Global Media and Communication 11(1)

ITV Inter Medya (2013) About us. Available at: http://www.itv-intermedya.com/site/aboutus

Iwabuchi K (2002) Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism.
Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press.
Iwabuchi K (2008) Cultures of empire: Transnational media flows and cultural (dis) connec-
tions in East Asia. In: Chakravartty P and Zhao Y (eds) Global Communications: Towards a
Transcultural Political Economy. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, pp.143–162.
Jafar M (2012) Turkish soaps: Threat to Pakistan’s culture or entertainment market? Al Arabiya, 21
December. Available at: http://english.alarabiya.net/views/2012/12/21/256353.html(accessed
June 2013).
Jay S (2013) Special report: Turkish tales. World Screen, 26 February. Available at: http://www.
worldscreen.com/articles/display/38026 (accessed May 2013).
Jones D (2013) Iran pins rise in divorce on steamy Turkish TV. The Sunday Times, 31 March.
Available at: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/Middle_East/arti-
cle1238230.ece (accessed June 2013).
Kraidy MM (2005) Hybridity or the Cultural Logic of Globalization. Philadelphia, PA: Temple
University Press.
Kraidy MM and Al-Ghazzi O (2013) Neo-Ottoman cool: Turkish popular culture in the Arab
public sphere. Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture
11(1): 17–29.
Kuipers G (2012) The cosmopolitan tribe of television buyers: Professional ethos, personal taste
and cosmopolitan capital in transnational cultural mediation. European Journal of Cultural
Studies 15(5): 581–603.
McDonald A (2012) Turkey takes off. C21 Media, 28 February. Available at: http://www.c21me-
dia.net/turkey-takes-off/ (accessed May 2013).
Marka, Lisans ve Medya Dergi (2013) Turk yapimi dizi ve filmlerin dunyadaki basarisi [Success
of made-in-Turkey television series and films around the world]. Spring, pp.56–57.
Matthews O (2012) The Arab world’s Dallas. Newsweek, 5 September. Available at: http://www.
thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/09/04/turkish-soap-operas-are-sweeping-the-middle-
east.html (accessed September 2013).
Mezzera J (2013) Upwards spiral. TTVNews, 26 February. Available at: http://www.todotvnews.
com/scripts/templates/estilo_nota.asp?nota=eng%2FEjecutivos%2FEntrevistas%2F2013%2
F02%5Ffebrero%2F26%5Fizzet%5Fpinto Accessed June, 2013.
Moore R (2013) Soap opera diplomacy: Turkish television in Greece. The International, 12
February. Available at: http://www.theinternational.org/articles/339-soap-opera-diplomacy-
turkish-tv-in-greece (accessed September 2013).
OECD (2013) Country statistical profile: TurkeyOnis Z (2012) Triumph of conservative glo-
balism: The political economy of the AKP era. Turkish Studies 13(2): 135–152.
Oxford Business Group (2012) Soap Power: The Sweeping Success of Turkish Television Series.
Available at: http://www.oxfordbusinessgroup.com/news/soap-power-sweeping-success-
turkish-television-series (accessed June 2013).
Oymen A (2012) Turkish ‘TV series spring’ continues. Hurriyet Daily News, 17 October.
Available at: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-tv-series-spring-continues.
aspx?pageID=238&nid=32562 (accessed June 2013).
Ozedincik S (2013) 100 milyon dolarlik dizi ihracati [100 million dollars worth of drama exports].
Sabah, 24 March. Available at: http://www.sabah.com.tr/Ekonomi/2013/03/24/100-milyon-
dolarlik-dizi-ihracati (accessed June 2013).
Pieterse JN (2009 [2003]) Globalization and Culture: Global Mélange. Lanham, MD: Rowman
& Littlefield.

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

Yesil 59

Quilliam Foundation (2013) Turkey’s role as a regional power: Its scope, challenges and future, 22
July. Available at: http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/publications/
free/turkeys-role-as-a-regional-power.pdf (accessed September 2013).
Reuters (2008) Saudi cleric slams Turkish shows as ‘wicked’, 27 July. Available at: http://
in.reuters.com/article/2008/07/27/idINIndia-34699320080727 (accessed May 2013).
Rohde D (2012) Inside Islam’s culture war. Reuters, 8 March. Available at: http://blogs.reuters.
com/david-rohde/2012/03/08/inside-islams-culture-war/ (accessed May 2013).
Ros R (2012) The heyday of Turkish content. TTVNews, 10 October. Available at: http://www.
todotvnews.com/scripts/templates/estilo_nota.asp?nota=eng%2FDistribuci%F3n%2FMerca
dos%2F2012%2F10_Octubre%2F15_turquia_mipcom (accessed June 2013).
Salamandra C (2012) The Muhannad effect: Media panic, melodrama and the Arab female gaze.
Anthropological Quarterly 85(1): 45–77.
Sinclair J, Jacka E and Cunningham S (1996) New Patterns in Global Television: Peripheral
Vision. London: Oxford University Press.
Straubhaar JD (1991) Beyond media imperialism: Asymmetrical interdependence and cultural
proximity. Critical Studies in Mass Communication 8: 39–59.
Straubhaar JD (2007) World Television: From Global to Local. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Temizkan M (2013) Diziler politikada yumusak gucumuz [Dramas soft power in politics].
Hurriyet, 19 January. Available at: www.hurriyet.com.tr/ekonomi/22393285.asp (accessed
September 2013).
TESEV (2010) The perception of Turkey in the Middle East. Available at: http://www.tesev.org.
tr/Upload/Publication/0cce6971-8749-4f19-b346-cd415e4aca3c/The%20Perception%20
of%20Turkey%20in%20Middle%20East%202010_02.2011.pdf (accessed September 2013).
Thussu DK (ed.) (2007) Media on the Move: Global Flow and Contra-Flow. London and New
York: Routledge.
Today’s Zaman (2012) Turkish soap operas popular in Greece because of cultural similarities,
2 December. Available at: http://www.todayszaman.com/news-299930-turkish-soap-operas-
popular-in-greece-because-of-cultural-similarities.html (accessed June 2013).
Tokyay M (2012) Turkish media expands global presence. SES Turkiye, 29 May. Available at:
http://turkey.setimes.com/en_GB/articles/ses/articles/reportage/2012/05/29/reportage-01
(accessed September 2013).
TTVNews (2013) Global agency names new head of development, 24 January. Available at: http://
www.todotvnews.com/scripts/templates/estilo_nota.asp?nota=eng%2FEjecutivos%2FNom
bramientos%2F2013%2F01%5Fenero%2F24%5Fglobal%5Fagency (accessed September
2013).
Ulker K (2013) Hollywood’un Son’u [The end of Hollywood]. Sabah, 5 May. Available at: http://
www.sabah.com.tr/ekonomi/2013/04/05/hollywoodun-sonu/ (accessed June 2013).
Whittock J (2013) Exclusive: Turkish drama ‘The End’ to get U.S. remake. Television Business
International, 4 April. Available at: http://tbivision.com/news/2013/04/exclusive-turkish-
drama-the-end-to-get-us-remake/58492/ (accessed June 2013).
World Bank (2013a) Country profile: Turkey. Available at: http://databank.worldbank.org/data/
views/reports/tableview.aspx (accessed September 2013).
World Bank (2013b) Turkey: GNI Per Capita. Available at: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/
NY.GNP.PCAP.CD/countries/TR-7E-XT?display=graph Accessed September, 2013.
Yusuf H (2013) The geopolitics of soap operas. The New York Times, 10 January. Available at:
http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/the-geopolitics-of-soap-operas/?_r=0 (accessed
June 2013).

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

60 Global Media and Communication 11(1)

Zalewski P (2013) As Turkey turns. Slate, 16 August. Available at: http://www.slate.com/articles/

arts/roads/2013/08/turkish_soap_operas_go_global_turkey_s_homemade_melodramas_are_
popular_across.html (accessed September 2013).

Author biography
Bilge Yesil is Associate Professor of Media Culture at City University of New York, College of
Staten Island. She is the author of Video Surveillance: Power and Privacy in Everyday Life (2009)
and The Turkish Model? Media, Democracy and the Neoliberal Islamist State (forthcoming). Her
research interests include media policy, censorship, Internet regulation, surveillance and mediated
activism.

Downloaded from gmc.sagepub.com at COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND on June 15, 2016

View publication stats