Turkish television series (Turkish: televizyon dizileri) are wildly popular both in Turkey and internationally, and place among the country’s most well known economic and cultural exports.
Turkey is the world’s fastest TV series exporter and the second biggest exporter of TV series after the U.S. Turkish TV series are among the world’s lengthiest, ranging between 120 and 150 minutes in length.The television series industry has played a pivotal role in increasing Turkey’s popularity in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East and North Africa.
Turkey has currently overtaken both Mexico and Brazil as the world’s second highest television series exporter after the United States.Turkish television shows are almost always available in multiple languages, dubbed or subtitled to fit the target country’s language. The success of Turkish television series has boosted tourism as well, as visitors are keen to see the locations used for their favourite shows.The Turkish TV series’ sudden immense international popularity since the 2000s has been widely commented on as a social phenomenon.
“Deli Yürek” was the first Turkish TV series exported internationally in 1999.
Turkish series are mostly produced in Istanbul, as television companies chose to settle there after the wave of liberalization for private television in the 1990s.
Turkish television channels producing TV series include TRT, Kanal D, SHOW, STAR, ATV, FOX, tv8, and Kanal 7.The Turkish TV series market is marked by stiff local competition: out of the 60 series produced every year in the country, almost 50% don’t run for longer than 13 episodes due to the strong competition among the different local channels, resulting in the high-quality of the productions and contributing to their popularity.
