The VOD scene in Turkey, a.k.a. Haluk Bilginer-Verse: The first years of turkish originals on the global and national VOD services

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the first years of global and national video-on-demand services' activities in Turkey. In the late 2010s, Netflix and several national VOD services have begun to produce their own original contents, mostly including series, in Turkey. This study attempts to showcase and scan streaming strategies, structures of catalogs, and features of Turkish original contents of global and national VOD platforms, which service in Turkey. Besides the analysis, recent debates in the field are mentioned to develop a contemporary understanding of the VOD scene in Turkey. Particularly, most of the national VOD services, including BluTV, puhutv, and Exxen, have attempted to cast a worldwide-known Turkish actor for the initial original productions' leading roles, Haluk Bilginer. Moreover, he has been cast in several Turkish Netflix original series and the movie in the early 2020s. While this chapter investigates VOD services' strategies in the production of Turkish originals, the study seeks to connect them to Haluk Bilginer, who is approached as the front face of Turkish casting to globalize and digitalize original contents in this chapter. For this purpose, the study collects all Turkish original dramas, covering series and movies, in VOD services to reveal the market's ways of growing in Turkey. The study's one of the objectives is to demonstrate a detailed list of Turkish original contents on several VODs. Further, the study aims to clarify descriptions of VOD models, which have been serving in Turkey. Therefore, it could contribute to the field by including detailed data, showing the collection of Turkish originals in the early years of VOD services, and revealing the possible patterns and commonalities between Turkish original contents. © 2022 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.