Sprawling Bosphorus mansions, elaborate family breakfasts and endless glasses of Turkish tea have become familiar sights far beyond Türkiye, carried into homes around the world by the country's hugely popular television dramas.
Over nearly two decades, Turkish stories of love, betrayal, family and power have traveled to the Middle East, Latin America, Europe and Asia, turning the country's television industry into a global cultural export worth more than $1 billion.
Now, producers are looking for their next big audience – China.
Kerem Catay, CEO of production company Ay Yapim, told Anadolu that Turkish productions now reach well over 100 countries, with successful projects potentially reaching audiences of around 1 billion people.
The industry's two biggest overseas markets remain the Middle East and Latin America, where Turkish dramas have become deeply embedded in popular culture.
Turkish dramas have helped familiarize foreign audiences with the country's food, clothing, language and everyday customs, while their popularity has also been linked to increased interest in Türkiye as a tourist destination.
For Birol Guven, a producer and director general of cinema at Türkiye's Culture and Tourism Ministry, that cultural influence is one of the industry's most significant achievements.
“Turkish dramas are also an invitation,” he said. “When people watch a Turkish drama, they want to travel to Türkiye.”
Turkish dramas began developing a major international presence in the late 2000s.
Catay pointed to Yaprak Dokumu (The Fall of Leaves) as one of the productions from the early years of that expansion, followed by major successes including Ezel, Ask-i Memnu (The Forbidden Love) and Kara Sevda (Endless Love).
“We had great success starting from 2007, 2008,” he said on the sidelines of the Turkish Series Symposium in Istanbul.
The Middle East provided the industry's first major international audience before the phenomenon spread dramatically across Latin America.
Since then, Turkish productions have become hits in European countries like Spain, Italy and many Eastern European nations, as well as Asian markets.
Other landmark productions, including Kurtlar Vadisi (Valley of the Wolves), Muhtesem Yuzyil (Magnificent Century), Dirilis: Ertugrul (Resurrection: Ertugrul) and Cukur (The Pit), further expanded the industry's international reach and attracted devoted audiences around the world.
“We even have Vietnam. I mean, we have been selling content to Vietnam for years,” Catay said. “We have Asia, all around the world.”
And the industry has become large enough internationally that Guven argues “Turkish drama” is now effectively a global brand of its own.
“Türkiye is the only country whose content is referred to by a name such as ‘Turkish drama,’” he said. “You do not hear terms such as ‘English drama’ or ‘American drama.’ We are the only country that refers to its television series as ‘Turkish drama.’ This is very important.”
Guven pointed out that Türkiye has long been a country that punches beyond its weight in terms of cinema.
“We have a long history, and our history of cinema goes back to the invention of cinema,” Guven told Anadolu. “Over the last 20 years, we have built a very large television industry on top of this heritage.”
Yet one enormous television market remains largely beyond the industry's reach.
Despite Turkish dramas' success elsewhere in Asia, Catay said establishing a meaningful presence in China is now one of the industry's major ambitions.
“The next region should be China for us,” he said.
Turkish producers traveled to China last year with Türkiye's Culture and Tourism Ministry to explore opportunities for bringing their productions into the market, according to Catay.
Breaking into China could offer Turkish producers another massive audience with an appetite for serialized television dramas. Domestic Chinese dramas currently dominate the market, but Korean dramas have also had a major following.
Meanwhile, the industry requires continued effort to maintain the momentum of Turkish series in markets where they have already broken through.
“The main issue is that all the Turkish production companies have to keep on having this success around the world,” Catay said.
At the same time, measuring the industry's global audience has become more difficult as streaming platforms play a larger role in international distribution.
Catay said traditional television ratings provide audience data in some markets, while global digital platforms generally do not disclose detailed viewing figures to producers. Instead, companies often gauge a production's performance through indicators such as whether it enters a platform's top 10 rankings in individual countries.
“If it’s a digital one, if it’s a platform one, we don’t know the ratings because they’re not giving out the ratings,” he said.
Catay estimated that a successful Turkish production could potentially reach around 1 billion people through the industry's presence in roughly 140 countries.
The industry's influence is increasingly measured in more than dollars and viewers.
Guven compared Turkish dramas with American television, which for decades exported images of US lifestyles and consumer culture alongside its entertainment.
“When American television series enter a country, they bring elements of American daily life with them, such as hamburgers and coffee,” he said.
Turkish dramas are doing something similar, he argued, exposing viewers to Türkiye's landscapes, traditions and everyday life.
Research has found evidence of that cultural spillover. Studies of audiences abroad have linked Turkish series with greater interest in Turkish culture and language, as well as increased interest in traveling to the country.
The effect is particularly visible in Istanbul, where locations used in internationally popular series have themselves become attractions for foreign fans.
For Guven, that makes television part of something much larger than the entertainment business.
“The effects and side effects of Turkish dramas are significant,” he said. “Generally speaking, Turkish dramas serve as an open invitation to people all over the world.”
“This is a new form of heritage today,” he added.
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