It
is a fact that Turkish series have a worldwide success and this led me to think
about the success of soap operas in Turkey 10-15 years ago. It is interesting
that how soap operas come to a sudden end from being the biggest hits of the daytime.
I started thinking about the underlying reasons of this and the possibility of the unexpected decrease of Turkish series at the global market.
It
makes sense when a product is not doing well and removed, but in this case it
is the end of a genre, not a product. So, I wonder if this change depends on
the audience habits or is it because of the existence of the better products.
I
remember that we were watching Vahşi Güzel (Muñeca Brava) together with my friends
from primary school when we are back home. Everyone was a big fan of Natalia
Oreiro
and Facundo Arana, and it was the main topic of the young generation at that
time. Then, in 5 years there was no interest at all to the soap operas and
channels started to remove them from their programming schedule. Instead, they
replaced soap operas with reality shows -mainly the ones that depend on women-
and since then channels have these reality shows on their schedule.
On
the other hand, Turkish series are really successful right now. In LATAM,
Middle and East Europe, Asia and CIS countries, there are millions of fans that
are waiting for the new episodes to see their favorite actor. But I think that
the success of Turkish series may come to an end because of so many reasons.
First, if the broadcasters realize a change in the audience habits that starts
with a huge interest to another genre, they can replace and prefer the other
one because they are paying so much money on Turkish Dramas. Secondly, because
of the restrictions on the content of the Turkish dramas, the producers are not
able to use scenes with alcohol or sexual intimacy. They also don’t mention any
political situations because they don’t want to take risks by being closer to a
political standing. I think, in the future this will lead them to produce
monotypic love stories in which poor girl and rich guy cannot come together
because of the familial and economical obstacles. As a result of these
monotypic products, dramas may lose their international audience because it is
surely beyond doubt that they will get boring.
I
know that there is a big difference between the production values of Turkish
products and the rest, but if the rapid increase of the production qualities
that happened in Turkey happens in other countries, this will only be a detail.
I think they are already using the ideas that are very popular at the moment. So even though the popularity of TV shows dont decrease I believe the content will change dramatically. Especially according the political climate the popularity of content changes and the popular content is often used for the shape popular opinion. So I believe Turkish dizi or some other version of it will exist in the future.
ReplyDeleteThey are going to change, they can't keep going as they are because there is a new generation on the way. Those who are 40-ish years old have never seen the new age of TV, which I've discussed in my blog post, basically Netflix and movie-quality-TV. Some of our generation have seen it. But the next generation will see ONLY that. Their perception and definition of TV will require more quality than there is in Turkish TV now. So, change is a must.
ReplyDeleteHowever, we should not consider change as replacing one type of production with another because different types can co-exist together. Since different type of productions can aim at different audience groups, they can live together. Take American TV for example, they produce "the" most popular TV shows in the world but they also keep producing the most ridiculous things as well, things we don't see on the internet but they see on their local TV.
Every single Turkish industry including media is under political threat here. The political situation is so delicate that soon there will not be enough room to move around and create content. At least marketable content. Turkey is an object of desire right now because it gives a glimpse of both cultures, west and east. But as the Islamic tendencies contiunue to grow it is becoming a representation of one culture only. Also, Turkish media content is very busy with trying to keep its own people on the line. Some companies and shows need to consider their part in ''education'' of the public or should I say numbing of the masses and create content that is specifically made for this market with no concern with export rates. So there will always be new content, media is a well known administrative tool. But will that content sell? I doubt it.
ReplyDelete