“The popularity of Turkish TV series on Arab channels, is attracting students at Iraqi universities’ Turkish literature departments. The Turkish Language and Literature Department has become one of the most popular faculties at Iraq University’s Foreign Languages Department. The phenomenon is part of a growth in Turkey’s ‘soft power,’ a sociologist says.
It has long been known that Turkish television series aired in Arab countries have resulted in an increased interest in Turkish culture, yet the shows have also begun attracting more students to the discipline of Turkish literature, according to academics. In Iraqi universities, Turkish literature now trails only English literature in terms of popularity.(…)”
“Do you believe in instilling strong moral and/or religious values, discipline and boundaries in your children? Are you proud of your parenting skills? Can you give two British teenagers the chance to have some much-needed structure in their lives?
These are the questions posed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which is looking for a Turkish family to take part in a long-running series on parenting.
“We have made programs examining this interesting issue in countries all over the world but have never been to Turkey. We are very excited about the prospect of coming to Turkey to film and are looking for inspirational parents who are proud of their family and of the way they are raising their own teenagers,” said Rebecca Symons, an assistant producer for Twenty Twenty television in the UK producing the program for the BBC called “World’s Strictest Parents.”(…)“
I used excel’s macros programming (cf. this article for the technique) to gather into one database several informations about the daily audience of television in Turkey since 2004 containing : target group, day of diffusion, name of the program, channel of broadcasting, score of audience, rating, and market share. The period studied in that database runs from June 11th 2004 to May 1st 2011, and represents approximately, so 2500 days and 500.000 different programs referenced.
NA : in order to share those results with turkish colleagues more easily I tried to write this article in English. I apologize in advance for the grammar faults I’ll certainly do. You can post comments if some parts seems not understandable.
I considered that part of my thesis as a complement to other datas I presented into another articles (timelines, TV production informations). On the frame of a scientific research the global intention of this new quantitive work is to prepare, by gathering various quantitive facts or infos about my subject (tv turkish series production from 1970 to now) some sufficient factual backgrounds to lead further qualitative and theorical analysis.
THE DATAS :
Before any consideration I wanted to give some infos giving an idea of the turkish population concerned by the television. In Turkey, for a population of 72 millions inhabitants and 18,3 millions households in 2009, 17,9 millions have a tv (so 96%). It means around 71 millions turks were in 2009 able to watch television at home. (source : EU, MAVISE )
The audiences datas presented below were first produced by AGB Nielsen, then published day by day on Medyatava since June 2004.
According to their website “Nielsen Audience Measurement Turkey has been conducting Television Audience Measurement (TAM) services in Turkey since 1989. Today, the panel represents the urban Turkish population with 2500 households“.
KEY FACTS Population: 72,561,312 total / 60,264,546 urban (2009 population) Panel Size: 2,500 households First data production: 1989
THE PANEL Peoplemeters installed: 3,500 to 4,000 Universe: 51,657,783 (representing age 5+ urban population) Data monitored: Terrestrial, cable and digital satellite Data retrieval via: Phone lines
(Source : AGB Nielsen)
The main critic we could do about the audience survey by AGB Nielsen is the lack of precisions concerning the method they use to obtain their numbers. It’s also interesting to notice that AGB Nielsen is nowadays living the end of a crisis lasting since 2007 between them and the turkish government (cf “revue de presse” and this article), their contract coming also to an end. Anyway the interest of doing this study is the monopolistic position of AGB Nielsen in the audience measurement in Turkey. Even if the figures given by AGB are suspicious, the fact stays that every private channel has to refer to their numbers to decide of a broadcasting strategy.
Another precisions and definitions concerning the reading of the graphs :
Audience rating : from 0% to 100%, 0% meaning nobody watched the program, 100% the whole sample population watched it.
Audience score : from 1st to 100th place. A good score could be a high or low rate depending on the other audience ratings ; it’s relative.
Number of programs : quantity of programs broadcasted.
AB group / TÜM group : groups of population defined by AGB Nielsen. I don’t have yet a lot of information about the groups composition. So as a first exploration, this analysis will just focus on one : the AB group, seeming to be the “high and middle class”, the one interesting the most for advertisement sellers.
AUDIENCE ANALYSIS :
I’ll present therefore a serie of various graphics intending to measure the importance of TV series audience amongst other kind of programs into the grid of the channels. At this step of the analysis the audience analysis can be approached by different ways : the program typologies, the channels grid’s structuration, and the periodicities of audience.
The audience data is a key fact for any channel studied : the audience weights the price of the advirtisement space in the broadcasting grid, and so the capacity of revenue of the channel. The higher audience gets, the more expensive you can sell advertisement. It seems quite important to analyze audiences and its impact on creation considering the behavior of other channels as in Turkey as abroad : for instance it’s well-known in America the channels are monitoring very carefully the audience’s curves and make changes to the contents, to the scenario, to get better audience rates. The situation in Turkey seems to be likewise and any telespectator in Turkey could see what importance and presence got the sponsors into the production of a tv serie.
1/ PROGRAMS TYPOLOGIES
The first graph presented above compares the audience score rates (from the 1st viewed to the 100th) of different categories of programs :
Cartoons, Concerts, Daily Magazines, Documentary, Film Foreign, Film Turkish, Health/Service Education, Humour, Magazines, Meeting/Discussion, Music/Entertainment, News report, Newscast, Politics, Reality Show, Religious, Serials Foreign, Serials Turkish, Sport News, Sporting Events, Sporting Magazine, Studio Programs, Talk Show, Theatre/Cabaret/Musicals, TV Games, Weekly Magazines, Women.
Reading the graph : We can see on this graph a very distinguished preferences from the audience (10 first rates ) for turkish series and newscasts, the third prefered kind of program being the TV games. The particular observation with this chart is the relative constance of those curves for every typology from 10th to 100th rating score. The interpretation we could do at this point (as a hypothesis) would be the following :
Above another graph in the same spirit but slightly different. In that graph the scores (x axis) are replaced by constant ratings, so the interpretation deals with another fact : the “left-behinds” turkish series programs.
Reading the graph : In my interpretation of this graph, the “left-behinds” turkish series are the programs in orange at the left side of the graph, composing the big orange curve. Those programs get a very low audience (less than 10% on the x axis) but are massively produced ! That fact seems quite paradoxical but could be seen as an effect of the inflation of the tv series production – the so-called “Yesilcam” era for tv series. It could be explained by the will of producing more and more series, hoping one of them gets good rates. Series being the most successful way to have audience, more producers invent series concepts. Logically this “liberal” way to produce generates more offer than demand, and we can imagine half of series production has just succeeded in starting but not lasting. This could be the dark side of series production : the inflation of ideas and careers left behind because of their lack of capacity to get audiences.
2/ CHANNELS
The previous graphs were more dealing about the repartition of the whole programming between various typologies, without precising on which channels they were broadcasted.
The next graph shows how every channel compose its own grid of programs.
The next graph shows the numbers of TV programs rated from 1st to 10th, classified by channels.
There is another way, perhaps more explicit, to show those figures using the percentages.
Reading the graph : On the 18 channels presents in the AGB Nielsen datas, only 4 are getting more than 80% of the 10th first rates. So, if we trust AGB sources, the spectators are mostly watching ATV (in blue), KanalD (orange), Show TV (clear blue) and Star TV (pink). It’s also good to notice in the margin that TRT is treated differently by AGB Nielsen since 200…
The interesting fact showed by these numbers is the constance of this repartition in the 10th first rates.
3/ PERIODICITIES
Another important factors of the composition of broadcasting are the cycles of programs typologies choices within a day, within a week, or within a year. The time factor is a complex data to compute on a day-by-day database.
The two next graphics shows clear cycles on year-scale illustrations :
Reading the graphs : every summer (between june and august) since 2005 registers a clear decrease of audience. We could also note that turkish series (in blue) gets most of the highest rates the whole year compared to other programs, as we can see by the “clouds” of high rates.
The serie of the next three graphics focuses on turkish series programmation and their periodicity by month :
Turkish series analysis by month, year of programmation and audience scores - quantities (click to get a full view)
Reading the graphs : As we’ve seen before, the summer period could be considered as an empty one for series. But here the curves for all audiences scores and 10th first audiences scores are very different : as the total of programs broadcasted is merely stable the whole year (just february, march and june registering a light decrease), the curve of best scores is much more flexible and increase from january to march. We could input that to a big difference of strategy of diffusion between series in general and series gaining the first 10th scores. Perhaps after a couple of month of tests, the less competing series are ended at the benefit of the other, then more broadcasted
Furthermore the last graph shows the increase of serie’s diffusion from 2005 to 2010 in the absolute, with two years having real particularities : 2008 (the month of August for first audience score shows a peak) and 2010 (the absolute quantities of series broadcasted for all scores and for the first score).
The next graph focuses on a week-scale analysis, showing the percentages of programs broadcasted by their typology every day.
Typologies by weekdays (%) (click for a full view)
Reading the graph : Once more we can see the importance of turkish series in the grid compared to other kinds. Series are mostly working-days programs, the saturday and sunday gaining good audiences with other kinds of programs like TV games. For instance the mondays, the first 10th best audiences are usually generated by turkish series (50%), then by newscasts (25%), and the rest stays under 10% or less.
LIMITS AND CONCLUSIONS :
To be understood clearly, I wanted to precise I tried to keep in mind during this study that the figures given by AGB Nielsen should be taken with many precautions : first because of the different complaints opposing AGB and the government on the accusation of manipulating the datas, and secondly because of the absence of another major channels like TRT. So it’s clear AGB figures doesn’t have to be taken as a reflect of the reality of the audience, but as a tool inside the TV production chain.
Taking in consideration those limits the interest of this database lies anyway in the possibility to show how the different program typologies, the channels, the schedule of broadcasting and the ratings are interrelated, constituting a field in a Bourdieusian way to speak. To complete those diagrams by a field analysis, a factorial correspondance analysis would be necessary and should be the main topic of a next article.
As a first conclusion it’s obvious to say turkish series have a strategical importance in the channel’s capacity to get audience, and mechanically to get revenues from advertisement. More than strategical it’s nowadays the first kind of program getting best audiences. This capacity reveals interesting characteristics of the TV production for private medias in Turkey : even if in Turkey the topics of series are very dependent with local cultures and so differentiate production from US, the logic of “market” and the inflation effects related are similar.
A second conclusion to this article would be the help those analysis gave to give more precision to my phd thesis. It’s one thing to know that generally tv series are important in the television panorama, it’s another to be able to give precise datas about it. Furthermore, crossing those reflexions with previous ones, those analysis allow me to choose with more arguments a reduced panel of channels (ATV, SHOW, KANAL D and STAR TV) being the channels whiches are in the same time major producers of TV shows, and the most dependent on audiences rates in their capacity to attract advertisement funding.
Depuis le milieu des années 1990, les séries américaines connaissent un nouvel « âge d’or », marqué par des productions de grande qualité, par un engouement international spectaculaire (lié aussi aux nouveaux modes de visionnage – DVD, streaming ou VOD), et par un nouveau respect critique pour la forme elle-même. Ce colloque se propose d’explorer le lien que tissent ces œuvres entre fiction et réalité. Pourquoi, par exemple, certaines réalités semblent-elles se prêter plus particulièrement à la forme sérielle (le monde médical, policier, ou judiciaire par exemple)? Les communications pourront aussi s’interroger sur l’idéologie qui sous-tend les choix de la fiction : quelle fonction la fiction a-t-elle quand elle prend en charge un certain aspect de la réalité (sociale, politique, économique) à un moment donné ? (comme la représentation de l’administration américaine dans The West Wing [A la Maison Blanche], ou la dénonciation des dysfonctionnements institutionnels dans The Wire [Sur Ecoute]).
Les approches plus esthétiques et formelles pourront se pencher sur les modes et stratégies utilisées par ces fictions pour représenter le réel. En quoi consiste le « réalisme » prétendument affiché par certaines d’entre elles, depuis la représentation en « temps réel » de 24 jusqu’à l’utilisation de la caméra à l’épaule dans Californication, ou encore aux détails corporels très crus de Nip/Tuck ? D’autres œuvres, au contraire, témoignent d’une ambition de stylisation ou de caricature (Desperate Housewives), et que dire des mondes fantasmés de Battlestar Galactica ou True Blood, ou du rapport à une quelconque « réalité historique » dans des séries comme Deadwood, Mad Men, ou Rome ?
Ce lien entre fiction et réalité pourra aussi nous aider à réfléchir sur la manière dont ces séries s’inscrivent dans la réalité même des spectateurs. Le processus d’identification et d’appropriation semble atteindre des niveaux sans précédents. Les spectateurs poursuivent l’expérience de « leur » série sur internet, par des discussions, des « re-créations » audiovisuelles, ou tout simplement par la consommation de produits dérivés. Les séries influent par la suite sur la manière dont nous appréhendons la réalité qui nous entoure. De tout temps bien sûr, l’individu s’est construit en partie grâce aux fictions auxquelles il était exposé, mais on pourra s’interroger, lors de ce colloque, sur la spécificité de l’impact des séries sur le spectateur, qui y trouve à la fois le pouvoir hypnotique et séducteur du film de cinéma et le plaisir de la complexité narrative et de la durée plus généralement associé au roman littéraire.
Comité scientifique : Ariane Hudelet (Etudes anglophones, Université Paris Diderot)
Sophie Vasset (Etudes anglophones, Université Paris Diderot)
Pierre-Olivier Toulza (Etudes cinématographiques, Université Paris Diderot)
Marjolaine Boutet (Histoire, Université d’Amiens)
Sarah Hatchuel (Etudes anglophones, Université du Havre)
Monica Michlin (Etudes anglophones, Université Paris IV-Sorbonne)
Thibaut de Saint-Maurice (Philosophe, Lycée Richelieu, Rueil-Malmaison)
Contacts : Ariane Hudelet et Sophie Vasset
Programme du jeudi 5 mai 2011
13h30 : accueil et inscriptions
14h00 : ouverture du colloque (Ariane Hudelet et Sophie Vasset)
Panel 1 : Quelle réalité, quelle fiction ?
Présidente de séance : Ariane Hudelet
14h30 : De quel réalisme la sérialité est-elle la forme ? – Thibaut de Saint-Maurice (philosophe)
15h : Le temps des séries – Jean-Pierre Esquenazi (Université Lyon III)
15h30 : Du roman réaliste à la série télé, la fresque sociale en miettes – Antonia Zagamé (CNRS)
16h30 : Effet de réel contre réalisme dans les séries télévisées contemporaines – Hervé Glévarec (CNRS)
17h : The treatment of the law: between reality and imagination in television legal series – Barbara Villez (Université Paris 8 )
17h30 : Les séries judiciaires : histoires de cour, histoires de cœur. L’écriture dramatique au service de la culture juridique – Nathalie Maroun Taraud (ENS Ulm)
Programme du vendredi 6 mai 2011
Panel 2 : Histoire et histoires Présidente de séance : Marjolaine Boutet
9h : Les séries historiques entre la fiction et le réel : quand les scénaristes rivalisent avec les historiens – Ioanis Deroide (Historien, lycée Richelieu, Rueil Malmaison)
9h30 : “The West Wing with Wigs?”: Politics and History in HBO’s John Adams – Aurélie Godet (Université Paris Diderot)
10h : Les bonds historico-médiatiques de Sam Beckett. Code Quantum, voyage au temps des images -Vincent Baticle (Université Paris Diderot)
11h : Fiction and Reality in TV Series Portraying Presidents: Reality effect, Déjà Vu, Groundhog Day, Prophecy, or Time Warp? – Monica Michlin (Université Paris Sorbonne)
11h30 : « Qumar », le pays qui n’existait pas. The West Wing et le spectre du Moyen-Orient – Joseph Belletante (Triangle, ENS-LSH)
12h : Le remake de la série V et le système de santé universel de Barack Obama: entre réalité et fiction, histoire d’une défaite programmée – Audrey Viguier (University of Florida)
Panel 3 : Réalisme du corps Présidente de séance: Sophie Vasset
14h : Evidence of the Body: Death, Illness and Representation of Truth in Contemporary American TV series – Maria Neklyudova (Russian State University of Humanities, Moscou)
14h30 : Au plus près de la chair : corps malades et corps morts dans les séries contemporaines (titre provisoire) – Maud Desmet (Université de Poitiers)
15h : Deadwood entre réalité et fiction : inscription de l’Histoire, figurations du corps, et jeux de langage – Gilles Menegaldo (Université de Poitiers)
Panel 4 : Esthétiques du réalisme Présidente de séance : Shannon Wells-Lassagne
16h : Mad Men, Nostalgia, and the Aesthetics of Consumption, or: Don Draper Gets an iPhone – Simone Knewitz (Bonn University)
16h30 : Fiction and Reality in HBO’s Treme : A Narrative Alchemy at the Service of Political Truth – Catherine Dessinges, Dominique M. Gendrin, Wendy Hajjar (Tulane University)
Panel 5 : Genres et publics Président de séance – à confirmer
14h : House of mirrors: New realities, new fictions of the suburbs in The Middle – Donna Spalding Andreolle (Université Stendhal – Grenoble III)
14h30 : The L Word : Le réel sous le glamour : ou “The way that they live” – Adrienne Boutang (Université Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle)
15h : Veronica Mars vs Don Draper : le réalisme des séries adolescentes contemporaines – Pierre-Olivier Toulza (Université Paris Diderot)
16h : Is there a Doctor in the HOUSE ?: les séries télévisées médicales face au monde réel – Pamela Tytell (Université Lille 3)
17h : “Unreal” gender messages in late 90s women-centered action dramas – Anne Sweet (Université Paris 3- Sorbonne Nouvelle)
Programme du samedi 7 mai 2011
Panel 6 : Représenter quelque chose qui n’existe pas : de l’Antique à la science-fiction Présidente de séance : Sarah Hatchuel
9h : Jules César au secours des américains : l’incipit de la série Rome – Julie Gallego (Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour)
9h30 : Rome : un péplum enfin réaliste ? – Vivien Bessières (Université Toulouse II, Le Mirail)
10h : Rome ou le grain de l’antique – Isabelle Schmitt-Pitiot (Université de Bourgogne, Dijon)
11h : Occupation, collaboration, résistance et épuration dans la troisième saison de Battlestar Galactica – Marjolaine Boutet (Université d’Amiens)
11h30 : Battlestar Galactica and the Global War on Terror – Lori Maguire (Université Paris 8 )
12h : De Babylon à Caprica: la nouvelle science-fiction télévisuelle et l’effet-réalité – Medhi Achouche (Université Stendhal, Grenoble)
Panel 7: Du crime au châtiment Présidente de séance : Barbara Villez
9h : Quand la fiction irrigue la réalité : les usages sociaux des séries policières dans la fiction policière – Guillaume Le Saulnier (Université Paris 2)
9h30 : Qu’y a-t-il de « policier » dans les séries policières ? – Yann Philippe (Université de Reims)
10h : Entre ombres et lumières : les figures de policiers en eaux troubles, symbole d’une Amérique en perte de repères (The Shield, The Wire, Dexter) – Julien Achemchame (Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier)
11h : La perspective narrative dans les séries « Cop and Lab ». Quelles contributions aux représentations du monde scientifique et technique ? – C. Bruguière (Université Claude Bernard, Lyon), M. Chouteau (INSA, Lyon), C. Nguyen (INSA, Lyon), E. Triquet (Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble)
11h30 : From Oz to Lockup: Bringing Prison Life (Back) Home – Claudia Schippert (University of Central Florida, Orlando)
12h : Fictions et réalités : principes miroirs ? Castle ou la rencontre de la vie et de l’écrit – Anaïs Kompf (Université Paris Diderot)
Panel 8: L’inquiétante étrangeté Président de séance : Monica Michlin
14h : Twin Peaks, conte de la modernité, modernité du conte – Marine Legagneur (Université Paris 3-Sorbonne Nouvelle)
14h30 : X-Files : allégorie de la condition postmoderne du monde – Frédéric Gai (Université de Caen)
15h : “Reality lies elsewhere? Le néo-réalisme fantastique dans quelques épisodes de X-files” – Emmanuëlle Delanoë-Brun (Université Paris-Diderot)
Panel 9: Déformation et marginalité comme mode de représentation Président de séance : Emmanuelle Delanoë-Brun
14h : “Alan Ball’s California and Louisiana series: a troubled state of the nation” – Anne-Marie Paquet-Deyris (Université Paris X-Nanterre
14h30 : Which is the “True Blood”?: A Reflection on Otherness in Contemporary America – Marta Bosch (University of Barcelona)
15h : Carnivàle entre fiction et réalité historique – Jean Du Verger (Université Paris 5-Sorbonne)
Panel 10 : Conclusion : le vertige post-moderne ou la fusion entre réalité et fiction Président de séance : Pierre-Olivier Toulza
16h : Lost in Lost (le retour): Réalité alternative et/ou fiction collective – Sarah Hatchuel (Université du Havre)
16h30 : Transforming the traditional sitcom: the postmodern reflexivity of Abed in Community – Shannon Wells-Lassagne (Université Bretagne Sud)
17h : Desperate Housewives : fiction de toutes les fictions – Renan Cros (Université Paris Diderot)
A partir des données recueillies sur Internet puis croisées, j’ai pu créer quelques graphiques montrant l’évolution de la production turque de séries télévisées entre 1970 et 2010. Les données seront prochainement disponibles sous forme de tableau excel sur ce site.
Quelques précisions et précautions : sur mon échantillon de base désagrégé (soit 1694 titres de séries recensées), une grande partie n’est pas encore totalement renseignée. En effet il me manque parfois soit l’année de production, soit la maison de production, soit le canal de diffusion, voire les trois. Le travail présenté dans ce billet est donc toujours en cours d’évolution et sera peut-être caduque une fois que l’ensemble de ces 1694 séries sera totalement renseignées.
De plus les données qui sont illustrées ici ne représentent que les années où ont été “lancés” ces titres : ces graphiques ne tiennent donc pas en compte les séries qui continuent d’une année sur l’autre (telles que Kurtlar Vadisi ou Muhteşem Yüzyıl) ou les taux d’audience. Prendre en compte ces aspects demandent de récupérer d’autres types de données, et ce par d’autres méthodes (ces chantiers sont en cours).
Pour ces raisons je ne m’aventurerai pas à tirer des conclusions à cette étape, si ce n’est pour remarquer ou questionner des grandes tendances.
Sources croisées : sinematurk.com / diziler.com / dizimizi.com / imdb.com
Données recueillies grâce à RapidMiner.
Note concernant le graphique n°1 : le pic de l’année 2000 est soit intéressant soit suspect. Il peut s’agir soit d’une erreur dans les sources, soit d’une réelle “explosion” de la production. La question reste en suspens. On observe aussi un léger recul de la production entre 2008 et 2010.
Note concernant le graphique n°2 : il s’agit de courbes empilées. L’intitulé “autres (<8)” correspond aux chaînes ayant diffusé moins de 8 titres de séries sur l’ensemble de la période étudiée. Le recul entre 2007 et 2010 est lui aussi à prendre avec précaution : erreur des sources ou effet réel ? De même il est impossible que la Fox (aka TGRT) ait diffusé des programmes avant 1993, date de son lancement. On en conclura qu’un nouveau nettoyage des sources est donc ici nécessaire, d’autant que l’échantillon ne couvre qu’environ un tiers de l’ensemble des séries recensées (1694 titres).
Note concernant le graphique n°3 : comme pour le précédent graphique l’intitulé “autres (<15)” correspond aux maisons de production ayant produit moins de 15 titres de séries sur l’ensemble de la période étudiée. Entre 2005 et 2010, on notera que presque la moitié de la production est produite par des petites maisons de production (classées comme “autres (<15)”). Enfin on notera que l’échantillon ne couvre lui aussi qu’un peu plus d’un tiers de l’ensemble des séries recensées (1694 titres).
Note concernant le graphique n°4 : ce graphique reprend les données du graphique précédent à ceci près qu’il ne comptabilise pas les maisons de production ayant produit moins de 15 titres de séries entre 1970 et 2010. Il permet d’observer une évolution allant de situations de quasi monopole dans les années 70 de quelques grands producteurs (nationaux comme la TRT), à une fragmentation de la production répartie entre une quinzaine de producteurs plus ou moins importants aujourd’hui.
“Turkey’s hit TV series ‘Çocuklar Duymasın’ (Children Shall Not Hear) has caused tension between its Turkish producer and Azerbaijani producers. MinT Production, which holds the copyrights of the series, is preparing to sue the Azerbaijani Xazer TV channel. The owner of the production company, producer and screenwriter Birol Güven, says: ‘The problem of copyrights is common in all around the world. There should be a certain standard’
One of Turkey’s most popular TV series, “Çocuklar Duymasın” (Children Shall Not Hear), has caused tension between its Turkish production company and Azerbaijan. MinT (Made in Turkey), which holds the copyrights to the TV series, is set to sue the Azerbaijani TV channel Xazer for copyright infringement. (…)”
“Je proteste contre les scènes gratuites et non conformes à la réalité que comporte la série Muhtesem Yüzyil. Ce programme trahit notre histoire, insulte à la fois nos ancêtres et l’Etat ottoman, et désinforme le public. S’il vous plaît, bannissez-le des ondes avant qu’il n’ait rempli son objectif.” Des messages de ce genre, le RTÜK, l’équivalent turc du CSA français, en a reçu une avalanche en l’espace de quatre semaines, rapporte le quotidien stambouliote Today’s Zaman.
Du jamais vu dans l’histoire de l’institution, habituée à traiter 10 000 plaintes par mois en moyenne. Soixante-quinze mille téléspectateurs l’ont saisie en décembre pour dénoncer la diffusion, sur la chaîne privée Show TV, de Muhtesem Yüzyil – littéralement, “le siècle magnifique” – une série consacrée à la vie de Soliman le Magnifique, ce sultan législateur (1494-1566) qui fit de l’Empire ottoman une puissance mondiale.(…)”
” Over the past few years, Turkish television series have seen a rapid rise in popularity, partially due to the techniques used in filming them as well as their strong acting ensembles.
Outside of Turkey, the popularity of these series is breaking viewing records in regions from the Middle East to the Balkans. So far, a total of 65 Turkish series, including popular favorites such as “Acı Hayat,” “Asmalı Konak,” “Aşk-ı Memnu,” “Kurtlar Vadisi,” “Yabancı Damat,” “Yaprak Dökümü,” “Çocuklar Duymasın” and “Ihlamurlar Altında” have been broadcast to audiences in 39 countries, such as Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Iraq, Bulgaria and Greece. The country with the greatest demand for more Turkish television series is Kazakhstan, followed by Bulgaria and then Azerbaijan. (…)”
“Are Turkish series as taboo-breaking as the western media (and Turkish conservatives) make them out to be? As the content on Turkish television becomes increasingly liberalized, claims that these images are changing the status of women in the Arab world are growing. But liberals in Turkey are skeptical that television can have such an effect.
Homosexuality and sexual violence on prime time. Blockbuster soap operas telling convoluted stories of forbidden love. There is plenty of shocking content on Turkish television screens these days.
A month ago, a third of Turkish television viewers tuned in to watch one of the country’s most popular young actresses being gang-raped in the first episode of a new series.
A couple of days later a television channel—bought recently by a businessman close to the former Islamist government—broadcast the first ever Turkish-made soap opera to show two men in bed together, naked(…)”
“Une série télé qui décrit l’empereur ottoman Souleyman le magnifique comme un homme appréciant l’alcool et les femmes est menacée de censure.
On déplore souvent la faible culture historique de nos sociétés, qui ne cessent pourtant d’invoquer le «devoir de mémoire» pour conjurer dans le présent les erreurs du passé. Depuis plus d’un mois, c’est une véritable fièvre historique qui s’est emparée de la Turquie. Avec la diffusion d’extraits d’une série consacrée à l’empereur ottoman Souleyman le Magnifique, Le siècle magnifique, puis son lancement le 5 janvier 2011, plus de 80.000 plaintes ont été adressées au Haut conseil de l’audiovisuel turc (RTÜK) depuis cette date. (…)”
“Despite drawing massive reaction from conservative circles and a warning from Turkish media watchdog, ‘Muhteşem Yüzyıl,’ a soap opera based on events that occurred during the reign of Süleyman I, continues to be the most-watched television series” (…)
“RTÜK issued a warning to Show TV on the grounds of the series “Magnificent Century”. The series about the life of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent went on air on 6 January. It is alleged to be “contrary to the national and moral values of the society”, RTÜK said.
The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) issued a warning to the Turkish television station Show TV on the grounds of the series “Magnificent Century” (‘Muhteşem Yüzyıl’). The series about the life of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent was criticized by Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç and members of the Prosperity Party (SP).
Feelings ran high already after promotional material had been broadcasted from 11 December onwards and billboards to advertise for the series were posted. Some people demanded to cancel the series even before the first episode had been broadcasted. On 5 January, a group of protestors gathered in front of the television station in Levent/Istanbul to express their disapproval.(…)”