Kanal7 has been one of the very well-known family channels in Turkey appealing to general audience through a wide array of content from local drama series, female skewed non-scripted programs, travel, cultural and cooking shows, news and TV movies to acquired drama series, documentaries and feature films.
Kanal7 Media Groupoperates the main entertainment brand Kanal7, as well as thematic news channel Ülke TV, radio stations and an AVOD platform izle7.com. Prensario interviews YeşimSezdirmez, Deputy General Manager, Kanal7, during her participation at LA VirtualScreenings: ‘In a Turkish TV market dominated by weekly local drama series, Kanal7 positions itself as the only broadcaster of high-quality, prime time daily drama series. We produce stories resonating with human heart and appreciating values’.
She continued: ‘The central pillar of our prime time is long running daily Turkish drama series. Our stories are based on traditional spirit and they are female and family oriented. We have three internationally recognized brands that are successful in Latin America, Europe and Asia-Pacific’.
The first one is Elif, the heartbreaking story of a little girl who was drifted apart from her mother and became centre of the family struggle. ‘It has recorded a groundbreaking success winning millions of fans all around the world with sales in more than 40 countries with its five seasons’.
The second one is The Promise, telling the story of a young woman promising unwillingly to marry the son of an old family friend. This series follows the same path of Elif in the international market. ‘Our newest title is Legacy, launched in September 2020, centering around a little orphan boy who becomes a point of struggle between his mother’s sister and father’s brother who will then fall in love with one another in this fight’, underlined Sezdirmez.
The series are produced by Karamel Yapım and distributed by Eccho Rights. ‘In addition to daily dramas, we have acquired drama series from India, feature films mainly from major Studios and Turkish classical films from local market. Fiction as content is the heart of our prime time’, she added.
What’s next? Prensario asked. The executive said: ‘We are in the pre-production stage of a new daily drama that will be on air on prime time in the coming season. We will be launching a music show and a travel/ cooking show for this summer. Our program preference for acquisition depends on for which platform we acquire the content’.
For Kanal7, it mainly focuses on scripted drama as ready-made or format, non-scripted formats for daytime (female skewed lifestyle), and feature films (action/adventure/comedy) for prime time. For the news channel, it acquires factual, and documentaries of all genres especially nature and wild life, current affairs, travel/adventure, social issues, and history. And for its AVOD, foreign drama series and films to be dubbed in Turkish.
‘Productions in Turkey and all over the world had stopped due to pandemic in the second quarter of 2020. But as country, we managed the crises quickly and all productions started again in summer 2020. Since then, business have been going smoothly. Turkey will continue to be the leader of drama production and export. Investment in digital platforms will continue and grow. There are newly established SVOD platforms and new ones will come. There will be new original productions for OTT platforms. As Kanal7, we will be part of this growing circle and invest both on our tv screen and AVOD platform’, concluded Sezdirmez.
