Can Okan, Founder and CEO of Inter Medya, on Global Expansion, Co-Productions, and MIPCOM 2024 Debuts

Can Okan, founder and CEO of Inter Medya, joins us once again to discuss the company’s recent achievements. Since our last conversation, featured in our MIPTV issue, Inter Medya has reached significant milestones, including major sales agreements.

In this interview, Can Okan highlights the global success of their hit series like Deception and Bitter Lands, the company’s expanding presence in co-productions, and the sale of the remake rights of Love Undercover to Korea. He also shares Inter Medya’s plans for MIPCOM 2024, where they will introduce new series Valley of Hearts, as well as their innovative new music competition format, Crossover.

How has the past year been for Inter Medya since MIPCOM 2023?

Can Okan: Since the last MIPCOM, we have been working relentlessly. Starting from the beginning of 2024, we’ve had a packed calendar of market events. Our entire sales team has been consistently participating in various industry markets across the globe. In addition to this, we have been conducting numerous client visits. Alongside these efforts, we have achieved significant sales successes. The series we’ve distributed has become some of the most-watched content in various countries.

Inter Medya has a rich catalog. Which of your titles attracted the most interest in different markets in 2024?

Can Okan: We have an extensive catalog with over 15,000 hours of content. Our classic long-running dramas consistently remain at the center of attention. All of our series attract interest from buyers in various countries. We’ve had numerous sales for series like Deception, Last Summer, The Trusted, Love and Pride, Leylifer, The Girl of the Green Valley, Tuzak, and others.

Most recently, the series we newly undertook the international distribution rights, Loveberry and Valley of Hearts, both produced by TIMS&B Productions, have received tremendous attention since their very first broadcast. The new series we are introducing to the international market for the first time at MIPCOM 2024 have already captured the focus of all our clients. We are incredibly excited to witness the international success of these new titles.

You’ve had success in various countries with your long-running series like Bitter Lands and Deception. Could you share some updates on these series?

Can Okan: Yes, both of our series have achieved great success worldwide. We can almost say there’s hardly any place left where we haven’t sold Bitter Lands. Most recently, it has become a phenomenon in Italy, gaining an incredible fan base. Deception is also on a highly successful journey around the world. It has already started its broadcasting journey in Latin America, beginning with Chile, and there are many more sales for Deception that we will be announcing soon.

We’re aware that you’ve been focusing on co-productions. What are Inter Medya’s plans and goals in terms of co-productions?

Can Okan: Absolutely! Co-productions are an area where we are gaining valuable experience every day. We are so happy about being pioneers of co-productions between Latin America, the US Hispanic market, and Türkiye. To date, we have successfully launched four co-production projects, and we are actively working on several more to expand our portfolio. Currently, we have one co-production project under production. We will be sharing exciting details about this project very soon. While distribution remains our core business and primary focus, co-productions represent an exhilarating opportunity for us. We are committed to exploring every opportunity in this dynamic field.

Can Okan: “We leverage our strong insights and expertise to understand what international audiences are watching and what they expect from Turkish content. With years of experience in this industry, our knowledge serves as a powerful guide when selecting content.”

When making co-production agreements, do you have any regional criteria for the content? How do you approach the project design phase?

Can Okan: We leverage our strong insights and expertise to understand what international audiences are watching and what they expect from Turkish content. With years of experience in this industry, our knowledge serves as a powerful guide when selecting content. We carefully evaluate each project that comes our way, and if it resonates with us, we present it to our international partners. Fortunately, our partners have placed great trust in us throughout this journey. During the project design phase, we focus on crafting stories that appeal to the global market’s needs. We aim to assemble a cast of beloved Turkish actors. Our approach to scriptwriting and world-building is rooted in authentic Turkish codes. This commitment has earned us significant trust from our partners, who have entrusted us with the entire process. The results have been exceptionally successful.

You sold the remake rights of Love Undercover to Korea, which was a significant move for the Turkish TV industry. We’ve adapted some Korean dramas before, but this is the first time one of our original scripts is being adapted in Korea. Could you tell us more about this agreement?

Can Okan: We are proud to have achieved a milestone for Türkiye by licensing the remake rights of a Turkish series to Korea. The script for the Korean remake of the romantic comedy Love Undercover is currently being crafted by some of Korea’s most successful screenwriters, and we are incredibly excited to see the results. To date, numerous Korean contents have been successfully remade in Türkiye, and we are thrilled to be pioneers in this reverse process. Collaborating with one of Korea’s largest production houses has been a significant honor for us. At Inter Medya, we have successfully licensed the remake rights of many of our series to other countries, and this new step into the Korean market is particularly exciting. We hope to license the remake rights for many more of our titles in Korea in the future.

Do you think this agreement will open the door for us to sell more of our original stories to Korea?

Can Okan: We firmly believe this is just the first of many exciting collaborations to come. There is a remarkable similarity between Korean and Turkish content, despite the significant cultural differences. It’s truly impressive how the stories crafted by such diverse cultures resonate so closely with one another.

Inter Medya also represents mini-series like The Ivy and Hamlet. In our interview for MIPTV, you mentioned that mini-series are opening up new opportunities for distributors. In which countries or regions are our mini-series receiving the most interest, and where do you think we might need more time?

Can Okan: Our mini-series have successfully entered the content offerings of numerous digital platforms worldwide, allowing us to reach broader audiences. Viewers who were previously unfamiliar with Turkish content are now discovering it through these platforms, leading them to follow our series that air on mainstream channels. As mainstream channels in various countries witness the success of Turkish content on digital platforms, many are starting to include it in their programming for the first time. We’ve particularly observed significant engagement from English-speaking countries like the US and Canada and from Western Europe and the Nordics. We are confident that this positive trend will continue to grow over time.

What are your goals and main topics for MIPCOM 2024?

Can Okan: At MIPCOM 2024, we are excited to launch the international premieres of our new series Valley of Hearts and Loveberry. There is already tremendous enthusiasm among our clients for these successful titles, which will be meeting the international market for the first time. Additionally, we will showcase our impressive catalog featuring hit series such as Deception, The Trusted, Poison Ivy, Last Summer, Love and Pride and more. Our mini-series catalog will also be a key focus for our clients. We are bringing a meticulously curated selection of vibrant formats to this MIPCOM. Notably, we’ve added a fun and engaging music competition format, Crossover, to our catalog of competitive formats, and we are thrilled to introduce it to our clients for the first time. We invite all MIPCOM attendees to visit us at Pavilion C16.C.

This exclusive interview with Can Okan was featured in Episode Magazine’s MIPCOM 2024 issue.