For our MIPCOM 2026 issue, we spoke with Mustafa İlbeyli, Head of Advertising and Sales at TRT Sales.
At MIPCOM 2026, TRT Sales arrives with a catalogue that reflects the changing shape of its international strategy. While historical dramas remain at the heart of its global identity, the distributor is increasingly looking beyond the epic, expanding into contemporary family stories, romance, relationship-driven drama and streaming-focused productions.
With Deep in Love continuing to open doors in new territories and Marriage is Beautiful joining the slate as a lighter, contemporary offering, TRT Sales is also placing greater emphasis on strategic partnerships and the growing international potential of tabii Originals. We spoke with Mustafa İlbeyli, Head of Advertising and Sales at TRT Sales about the company’s performance so far in 2026, the evolving demands of international buyers and how a broader content strategy is shaping TRT Sales’ next phase of global growth.
Looking back at the first three quarters of 2026, how would you describe the year so far for TRT Sales? Have you seen any significant shifts in international demand compared with 2025?
The first three quarters of 2026 have been important for TRT Sales in terms of consolidating our international presence and continuing to diversify our business. Rather than looking only at the overall volume of sales, what has been particularly encouraging is the breadth of markets in which we have been active.
This year, we have completed sales across a very diverse range of territories, including Albania, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Romania, Niger, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Honduras, North Macedonia, Georgia, Dubai as well as multiple deals in the American continent. That geographic diversity is significant for us because it demonstrates the continued ability of Turkish content to connect with audiences with very different cultural and viewing backgrounds.
At the same time, we are seeing some interesting changes in what buyers are looking for. Historical dramas remain an important part of our business, but there is growing interest in contemporary family stories, romantic dramas and more character-driven narratives.
So I would describe 2026 as a year in which we are broadening the scope of our international business, both geographically and in terms of the types of stories we bring to the market.
Deep in Love has emerged as one of TRT Sales’ most successful recent titles internationally. What do you think has been the key to its strong performance across different markets, and has its success influenced the way you approach the positioning of new titles?
Deep in Love has resonated because it combines many of the elements audiences already associate with Turkish drama, strong emotional stakes, compelling characters, visual scale and a distinctive sense of place, with a very universal story about love, family, identity and conflict.
Its cultural identity is actually one of its strengths. The Black Sea setting gives the series a very distinctive world, but the emotions and relationships at the heart of the story are immediately understandable to audiences anywhere. You don’t need deep cultural knowledge to connect with the characters.
Its success has certainly influenced how we position new titles. We are paying more attention to identifying the universal emotional proposition of a series rather than relying only on conventional genre definitions.
At the same time, Deep in Love has reinforced something we strongly believe: a story does not have to lose its cultural identity in order to become global. In many cases, that identity is precisely what makes it distinctive.
All of this allows us today to evaluate not only a production’s story and appeal to audiences, but also how it can reach different audience segments, platforms, and regions.
Marriage is Beautiful is one of the new titles you are introducing to international buyers this season. What do you believe makes the series stand out within TRT’s increasingly diverse drama catalogue?
Marriage is Beautiful brings a genuinely different energy to our catalogue. It is a warm, contemporary family comedy-drama built around everyday life, relationships and family dynamics rather than the darker themes that are often associated with drama.
At the center of the story is a marriage registrar who has spent his life bringing other couples together while raising five very different daughters of his own. Through these five sisters, the series explores love, marriage, ambition and family from several different perspectives within the same household.
What makes it particularly attractive is the balance between humor and genuine emotional challenges. It is tender and relatable, but it still has enough character depth and conflict to sustain a compelling drama.
For TRT Sales, it is important because it demonstrates the scope of our catalogue. We can offer buyers the emotional richness of Turkish drama in a lighter, more accessible and feel-good register, alongside our large-scale and more intense productions.
Marriage is Beautiful is built around family, relationships and the different perspectives of five sisters on love and marriage. Do you see this contemporary, family-oriented storytelling as an area with particularly strong international potential at the moment?
Yes, absolutely. We see strong potential in contemporary, family-centered storytelling, and it is an area we are watching closely.
Family and relationships are among the most universal themes in television. The tensions between siblings, different generations, parents and children, and individual life choices are recognizable regardless of where an audience lives.
What Marriage is Beautiful does particularly well is give each of the five sisters her own personality and perspective on love and marriage. That creates multiple points of identification for viewers and also gives broadcasters different ways of presenting the series to their local audiences.
I also think there is an appetite for stories that provide warmth and emotional connection at a time when audiences are surrounded by increasingly dark and complex content.
And importantly, we don’t see this kind of contemporary storytelling replacing our historical and epic dramas. It complements them. The strength of our catalogue today is that we can offer both distinctive, culturally rooted stories and contemporary narratives built around emotions that audiences everywhere can understand.
TRT Sales has increasingly been working with different models of international distribution, including its collaboration with OGM on Deep in Love. How important are strategic partnerships with producers and other distributors becoming for TRT Sales as the global market becomes more competitive?
Strategic partnerships are becoming increasingly important. The global content market is more competitive and fragmented than it was even a few years ago, with more platforms, distributors and territories developing simultaneously. In that environment, collaboration allows us to be more agile and effective.
Our collaboration with OGM on Deep in Love is a very good example. By combining TRT Sales’ international network and market knowledge with OGM’s production expertise and commercial strength, we can create a stronger proposition for the global market.
And when we look at the diversity of the markets where we are doing business, from Europe and the Balkans to the Middle East, Africa and Asia, it becomes clear that local knowledge and strong partnerships can make a real difference.
We therefore expect to build more of these relationships going forward, both with producers and with distribution partners. The objective is not simply to distribute more content, but to create stronger international opportunities for the content we represent.
You previously spoke about tabii Originals as a space where TRT can experiment with stories and formats that may not fit a traditional broadcast slot. Do you see tabii increasingly influencing the kind of content TRT Sales can offer to international buyers?
Definitely. tabii is increasingly becoming an important creative space and a testing ground for TRT.
Because it is not constrained by traditional broadcast scheduling, it gives us the freedom to experiment with different genres, formats, tones and episode structures. It allows us to explore stories that might not necessarily fit a conventional primetime model, and when those stories connect with audiences, they can become valuable international assets.
For TRT Sales, this means that the definition of TRT content is becoming much broader. We can offer traditional long-form drama to established broadcasters while also presenting more compact, distinctive and streaming-native productions to digital platforms.
I believe tabii Originals will increasingly become a meaningful growth area within our international sales strategy. It complements our broadcast-originated content and gives us another avenue to reach audiences and buyers around the world.
TRT Sales has significantly broadened its drama offering in recent years, moving beyond the historical epics that have traditionally been one of its strongest areas. How important is this diversification to your international sales strategy today?
It is absolutely central to our strategy.
Historical epics remain one of TRT’s strongest and most recognizable pillars internationally, and we have no intention of stepping back from that strength. They are an important part of our identity and continue to have a strong audience around the world.
But the markets we are working in today are extremely diverse. Our sales activity across countries in Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America demonstrates just how different the expectations and content preferences of buyers can be.
That is why diversification is so important. By expanding into contemporary romance, family dramas, relationship stories, thrillers and digital originals alongside our historical productions, we can respond to a much broader range of buyer needs.
It also allows us to build deeper, longer-term relationships with buyers. Instead of having one type of title that works for one type of audience, we can offer different stories for different markets and platforms.
Diversification isn’t a departure from what built TRT Sales’ international reputation. It is an expansion of it.
As we meet at MIPCOM 2026, what are the main priorities for TRT Sales at this market, and which titles or content areas do you expect to generate the strongest interest from buyers?
At MIPCOM this year, our priorities are essentially threefold.
First, we want to continue building the international momentum of Deep in Love as it reaches new territories. Second, we are introducing Marriage is Beautiful as an important new addition to our contemporary drama slate. And third, we want to deepen conversations around strategic partnerships, co-distribution opportunities and tabii Originals as an increasingly important content pipeline.
We expect interest across our drama slate, both from buyers looking for established titles and from those looking for fresh contemporary stories. We are also seeing increasing interest in partnership models, so discussions around co-distribution, co-production and longer-term collaboration will be an important part of our meetings.
At the same time, we want to continue strengthening our relationships across both established and emerging markets. The diversity of the territories where we have been active this year gives us an opportunity to have very different conversations with buyers, depending on their audiences and platforms.
Overall, our objective at MIPCOM is to demonstrate the scale of our catalogue and to strengthen the next stage of our international business. Our catalogue today is broader and more flexible than ever, while remaining rooted in the storytelling quality and strong cultural identity that built TRT Sales’ international reputation.
