Ways of streaming in Turkey: A structural analysis of the BluTV case and discovery's investment in the Turkish SVOD service

Abstract

As the first Turkish subscription video-on-demand service launched in 2015, BluTV got an investment from the American mass media company Discovery in 2021. Discovery announced the details of the investment that it acquired a 35% stake in BluTV. Between BluTV's launch (2015) and the strategic partnership with Discovery (2021), BluTV has managed several collaborations with other global brands on original content releases. In this regard, the first season of BluTV's detective drama, Alef (Aleph), was simultaneously released on BluTV and the American pay television channel FX in 2020. In another case, BluTV aired the original comedy series, Dogu (2021) simultaneously with Vodafone TV. Besides, several originals of BluTV are located in the Netflix catalog, while they are still aired on BluTV, such as Masum (Innocent, 2017), Insanlar Ikiye Ayrilir (Two Types of People, Tunç Şahin, 2020), and Börü 2039 ( Wolf2039, 2021-2022). Compared to sharing licensing issues and releasing rights between BluTV and other streamers, the acquisition of Discovery could be examined from different perspectives. In one way, it shows the entrance of Discovery into the Turkish market, in another, it could be seen as an attempt of BluTV to be global. Along with the partnership, the platform's structure has changed, while the number of productions has dramatically increased. Meanwhile, Discovery had grand access to BluTV's catalog and an extensive portfolio of Turkish content. This chapter approaches BluTV as a particular case to be analyzed in terms of the changed structure of the platform after Discovery's acquisition. The study develops an argument to question the collaboration between two brands from the globalization perspective. The SVOD market in Turkey is at the edge of completing its first decade. Even Amazon Prime released its first Turkish original and Prime Video-branded movie titled Rüyanda Görürsün (In Your Dreams, Cemal Kaplan, 2023) two and a half years after Amazon Prime's entrance into the Turkish market. Netflix, Disney+, and beIN Connect continue to give service in Turkey and produce Turkish originals. In this scene, the partnership between BluTV and Discovery gains more importance to broaden an understanding of the global brands' operations in the Turkish market. That is why this chapter aims to scope the structure of BluTV, the features of the platform regarding its ways of streaming, and the expanded catalog due to the shared library with Discovery. Therefore, the study could put a new complexion on the first Turkish SVOD service, BluTV, which attempts to be global. © 2024 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.