Warner Bros Discovery completes acquisition of Turkish SVoD platform BluTV

US studio and streamer Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) has acquired BluTV, the SVoD service in Turkey in which it acquired a minority stake in 2021.

Jamie Cooke

The takeover of the platform comes after WBD launched streamer Discovery+ on BluTV in 2021 and took a 35% stake in the company. One of the components of the 2021 partnership was the option to invest further in BluTV, which has now resulted in the full acquisition of the service.

BluTV was launched by Kanal D’s parent company Doğan Holdings in 2016 and later expanded across the Middle East and North Africa in 2018, targeting Turkish and Arabic speakers.

BluTV launched its first original production, crime drama Innocent, in 2017 and has so far produced 26 original productions. The company also expanded into FAST channels in 2022.

Deniz Şaşmaz Oflaz

In February this year, WBD and BluTV cemented their partnership further by adding HBO content and the kids’ channels Cartoon Network and Cartoonito to the Turkish service. The full acquisition of BluTV comes as WBD prepares the international roll-out of its rebranded streamer Max in the next few months.

The news of the BluTV takeover also comes as WBD CEO David Zaslav said during the company’s Q3 results call that the company would be looking to allocate capital towards growth initiatives. Zaslav also met with Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish earlier this month to discuss a potential merger.

“Turkey has been an important investment territory for us for over 20 years and the acquisition of BluTV brings Turkey’s first local SVoD player into our portfolio,” said Jamie Cooke, general manager for CEE, Middle East & Turkey at WBD. “Together we bring Turkish audiences the most compelling viewing experience and expand the reach of Turkish content globally.”

Deniz Şaşmaz Oflaz, CEO of BluTV, added: “Our strategic partnership with Discovery, which started in 2021, has resulted in us becoming one of the Warner Bros Discovery brands today. From now on, we will blend the best local stories we have ever presented to our viewers with the world’s best global content to curate Turkey’s strongest streaming platform and bring our most successful local stories to the world.”