Crisis in Türkiye’s TV series industry: are the magnificent years over?
Turkish series reach billions of viewers around the world, yet the crews who make this success possible face gruelling working conditions, insecure contracts and workplace accidents. Rising costs are also taking many series off air, and even the most popular ones cannot release new episodes. A crisis that has long run deep and quietly has become far more visible because of the problems in Türkiye’s current economic order.
In the summer of 2015 I was on Lesbos for a short holiday. After settling into our small hotel, we went out to buy ice cream, and I noticed Turkish voices drifting from the open window of a whitewashed house. An elderly Greek woman was watching a Turkish series on television. When our eyes met, we both said “Kalimera”. That day I woke up to the fact that Turkish TV series are a global phenomenon, able to travel even between places historically taught to see each other as “enemies”.
Ten years on, the fact that Turkish series are watched around the world is no longer news. Türkiye is now the world’s third-largest exporter of TV series, after the US and the UK. According to data set out by many researchers, these series, made through the work of thousands of people, reach close to a billion viewers in at least 150 countries, and sales revenue has risen from 600 million dollars to almost a billion. Muhteşem Yüzyıl, for example, was sold to 50 countries and watched by more than 200 million people, while Diriliş: Ertuğrul brought in 180 million dollars.
The rest of this story is on Aposto Premium.
Premium members read every story. If you are not a member, sign up for Magazine and receive the covers and selected stories by email.