The leading Turkish SVOD service BluTV has embarked on international expansion in order to meet strong demand for Turkish content, according to Alptug Copuroglu, the company’s CFO and MD of business development.
Speaking in a wide-ranging presentation at the Connected TV World Summit in London, he said that 35% of content aired on Arabic TV in 2017 was of Turkish origin. What is more, Turkish series are now sold to 140 countries.
Copuroglu said that BluTV was launched in 2016 and has produced 11 original series in the last two and a half to three years. Masum, the first original series it made, has been licensed to Netflix. BluTV’s core market in Turkey accounts for 7-12 million users, while its BluTV Turkish World service targets 5.5 million Turkish people and neighbouring communities. Meanwhile, BluTV Arabic targets the MENA region, which has a population of 420 million, and BluTV Latino the 385 million people living in Latin America.
Copuroglu revealed that BluTV adopts different business strategies in different markets. In Turkey itself, it uses the D2C model, with Apple as an app distribution and payment partner. On the other hand, in the Turkish world it employs D2C, Amazon Prime Channels as an additional distribution channel in Germany and Austria, and Apple as a payment partner. In MENA it opts for D2C and telecom partnership, Apple as an app distribution and payment partner and the licensing of two series.
Commenting on the challenges of working with large tech companies, Copuroglu said that it has found them to be good at some things, less so at others. He gave the example of Germany, where BluTV has encountered difficulties in reaching ethnic Turkish minority.
