Above Istanbul's Tophane neighborhood, seagulls scatter as a drone captures footage of a young woman on the streets below.

It's for a television series, one of about 60 filmed annually in Türkiye that have made Istanbul and other Turkish cities familiar to viewers in nearly 170 countries around the world.

Over the past 15 years, Türkiye has established itself as the foremost exporter of series after the United States and Britain.

"Latin Americans find Turkish series very close to their culture," said Erdi Işık, development manager at Ay Yapım – Türkiye's leading exporter last year and whose production "Yargı" ("Family Secrets") last November won an International Emmy for best telenovela.

"When I show samples to a panel, even if they don't understand a word of Turkish, they catch what it is about because the family culture is very much the same," he said.

Also, the series in Türkiye also provides more modest material, important for audiences in the Middle East and Spanish-speaking countries who are accustomed to watching soap operas as a family.

However, "we think of the Turkish market first," he said, even though "we pick actors that can fit international expectations," citing a list of about 20 actors that appeal to the public outside Türkiye.

Family history, thwarted loves

"Bitter Lands," another success story, won best telenovela of the year in South America in 2020 with its lead actress likewise crowned.

Long popular in the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans, all once part of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish series about history, family intrigues and thwarted love stories are now present on every continent, even in the United States where they have captured the Hispanic market.

"They are now broadcast in prime-time in Spain, Saudi Arabia and Egypt," said Xavier Rambert, head of research and marketing at Glance, an audience measurement company in London, who praises the "effectiveness" of Turkish productions.

"Their ability to provide masses of content at very controlled costs makes it possible to fill the programs at reasonable prices," he added.

In total, nearly 700 million viewers enjoy "alla turca" telenovelas, according to the Turkish Culture Ministry.

The success is also due to the quality of the productions, said Özlem Özsümbül, sales director at Madd, the company that distributes series produced by Ay Yapım. "We always shoot on location," she said.

Each episode is written and shot from one week to the next, based on a general plot that evolves to adjust to the audience. A two-hour episode can be entirely written, shot and produced in six days.

Characters can be ejected, or minimized. Only the biggest stars are guaranteed up to 15 episodes, Özsümbül said.

But while "TV series are produced for TVs in Türkiye, they cannot recover their costs from airing in Türkiye" alone, said Özlem Özdemir, founder of Episode magazine, which covers Turkish TV shows.

'New generation'

Productions are therefore adapted to the international market. "Our system is unique as we shoot about two-and-a-half hours every week. And then, we re-edit for the foreign market to adjust the commercials," said Ahmet Ziyalar, co-founder of Inter Medya and CEO of Inter Yapım.

A weekly episode of 90 to 120 minutes in Türkiye can be converted into three 45-minute episodes broadcast daily in Latin America.

Meanwhile, Ziyalar has launched a so-called "New Generation" series of eight to 12 episodes intended only for streaming platforms.

"We think these new-generation series can find a place on the international market as well as the mainstream series we will keep producing," insisted Can Okan, CEO of Inter Medya, who will soon present them at the international festival Series Mania in Lille, France.

Okan said he recently reached an agreement with Colombian broadcaster Caracol for a series of 120 episodes in Spanish.