Turkish drama budgets tipped to rise, Global Agency's Pinto tells Content Americas

Nico Franks 24-01-2024 ©C21Media

Global Agency CEO Izzet Pinto with One Love star Barış Kılıç

CONTENT AMERICAS: The cost of producing Turkish telenovelas is expected to increase, with the current average budget of US$30,000 per episode rising to US$50,000, according to Global Agency CEO Izzet Pinto.

Discussing the global success of Turkish drama on a Content Americas panel on Tuesday, Pinto said that although Turkish drama budgets may still be dwarfed by US$1m-plus productions from markets such as the US, they are on the up.

International sales in key Lat Am markets such as Chile, Argentina and Ecuador are helping to keep the Turkish scripted business healthy, Pinto added, while actor Barış Kılıç, one of the stars of Global Agency telenovela One Love, said there is a “mutual understanding” between Turkish and Latin American people.

Explaining some of the reasons behind the continued popularity of Turkish drama among US Hispanic and Lat Am audiences, Pinto said it helped that dramas such as One Love are family-orientated and contain no sex or nudity.

Delegates were shown highlights from One Love, which asks what would happen if the son of a conservative family and the daughter of a modern mother fell in love, displaying the conflicts between the conservative and the secular in Turkey.

Pinto said the show has already been licensed in 50 countries, with buyers including TVN in Chile and Mediaset in Spain, and his ambition is for it to reach 100 markets in 2024 as the company prioritizes shopping finished programming over scripted formats.