[ti:Turkey's Export of TV Shows Also Fuels Tourism]
[al:Arts and Culture]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2024-07-22]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]Turkey has become a leading exporter of television shows in recent years.
[00:07.79]Millions of people are watching Turkish TV dramas known as Dizi. 
[00:15.35]Many of the shows involve the nation's famous historical and cultural places.
[00:23.86]Experts say the success of the television dramas has created a billion-dollar industry that continues to expand.
[00:35.41]Between 2020 and 2023, demand for Turkish TV series increased by 184 percent.
[00:47.32]That number comes from Los Angeles-based research company Parrot Analytics.
[00:55.31]Izzet Pinto is chief of the Turkish media company Global Agency.
[01:03.71]"We reach over 400 million viewers every night around the world," he said.
[01:10.96]Global Agency exports Turkish dramas to world markets.
[01:16.66]Pinto noted, "The soft power we create with Turkish dramas cannot be even compared to what could be done in politics."
[01:28.80]The Turkish drama Deli Yurek was the first to be exported. 
[01:35.47]Turkey sent it to Kazakhstan in 2001.
[01:40.64]But it was the love story series called Gumus that brought fame to Turkish dizis.
[01:49.49]The story is about a traditional woman who must adapt to life in the city.
[01:55.45]Gumus grew hugely popular in the Middle East.
[02:00.89]In 2006, viewers in Europe's southeastern Balkans area enjoyed A Thousand and One Nights, a series based on Middle Eastern folktales. 
[02:16.17]The stories were set in modern-day Istanbul. 
[02:21.49]Turkish TV also produced the show Magnificent Century, a popular historical drama based on the life of Ottoman Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent.
[02:37.33]Turkey was once an importer of Latin American TV dramas known as telenovelas.
[02:45.97]Now, it is exporting TV shows to Latin American countries. 
[02:51.69]In 2018, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro visited the set of the Turkish drama Resurrection: Ertugrul.
[03:06.61]Haley Uganadi founded a website for fans of Turkish TV series called Dizilah. 
[03:15.60]About 1.5 million people from the United States, Canada, Greece, India and Pakistan visit her website monthly.
[03:30.16]Uganadi said the popularity of the dramas comes from their subjects.
[03:37.31]She said they are about family, friendship and love and usually involve rich people in Istanbul or historical stories.
[03:50.27]Uganadi said the shows offer "something for everyone," and added, "I see reflections of my mom, myself and my siblings" in them.
[04:04.74]Pinto of Global Agency agrees that Turkish dramas are right for everybody. 
[04:13.38]"There is no nudity, no cursing or bad words, not much hate," he said, "So, it becomes watchable for the family."
[04:27.02]As Turkey's industry grows, it is expanding the themes of its series. 
[04:33.55]For example, the series Red Roses explores issues affecting a family that is culturally Western and a fictional Islamic brotherhood.
[04:47.78]During a recent period between filming, actor Ozcan Deniz told the Associated Press that diversification is important for industry growth.
[05:00.53]He said, "Countries that were not able to transform (into) a different genre are now lagging behind in the export of series." 
[05:12.03]He added, "Turkey has now caught this momentum, but if it cannot diversify, if it cannot also tell different things, it will end somewhere."
[05:26.37]Resurrection: Ertugrul is an example of the growing success of Turkish series.
[05:34.59]Mehmet Bozdag is a producer and writer.
[05:39.74]He said the first show of the series had over 157 million views on the Urdu language YouTube channel of Turkish state broadcaster TRT.
[05:54.23]Another series, Foundation: Osman, was broadcast in over 110 countries.
[06:04.13]I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.