A brief document to understand the basics of TV sector in Turkey. This is the first part which is about TV penetration and distribution. Please contact me for an extended version which comprises more subjective opinions and detailed information.

1. Understanding
Turkish TV Sector
2016
Part 1
Distribution

2. TV Distribution
Content
• Overview
• TV Penetration Statistics
• Turksat
• Digiturk
• D-Smart
• Cable TV
• IPTV
• Terrestrial
• RTÜK
Part1

3. Overview
• Turkey is a Free To Air market dominated by satellite
• Technical penetration is easy (Having a feed on Turksat 42 quickly makes the
channel available to >%75 of the market)
• But gaining a meaningful reach is difficult due to crowded FTA offering
• Turksat is asymmetrically dominant due to above facts
• Securing a place in Digiturk is a must for channels to extend their reach especially
towards operator’s high income subscribers
• Carriage is not a revenue source for national TV channels, on the contrary it’s a cost
• Only value added international content (sports, documentary, movie, adult, etc) has
carriage revenue potential
• (Analog) terrestrial has dropped to a “commercially negligible” level in recent years
• Contrary to many neighboring markets, Cable TV is very weak in Turkey
• IPTV and OTT is not growing up very quickly due to lack of sufficient fiber
infrastructure and expensive broadband fees
• Thanks to the eye popping penetration rate of smart phones in Turkey, TV on mobile
has potential

4. 71%
18%
9%
2%
FTA Satellite
DTH
Cable + IPTV
Analog Terrestrial
TV Penetration by Number of Households (2016 Q2)
Total TV Households ~ 21.000.000
Free To Air (via Satellite) ~ 15.000.000
DTH (Satellite PayTV) 3.850.000
Cable + IPTV 1.850.000
Analog Terrestrial (as primary TV in HH) ~ 450.000
Source: BTK Report 2016
Paid

5. Cable and IPTV
• Cable Total: 1.150.000 (Turksat A.Ş.)
• Digital Cable: 850.000
• Analog Cable: 300.000
• IPTV Total: 700.000
• Tivibu: 400.000
• Turkcell TV+: 300.000
DTH – Paid
• DTH Total: 4.300.000
• Digiturk: 2.700.000
• D-Smart: 1.000.000
• Tivibu DTH: 150.000
Distribution Platforms by Number of Households (2016 Q2)
Free To Air via Turksat
• FTA Total: ~15.000.000
By Satellite
Turksat 42°E: ~16.500.000
Eutelsat 7°E: 2.400.000
Source: BTK Report 2016 Satellite

6. Türksat A.Ş.
Facts
• Virtually covers all of the households in Turkey; and >75% of which are already
active watcher
• Fully owned by Turkish Treasury
• Hot point (42°East) for Turkey
• Carries more than 600 TV channels
• Largest teleport operator – Uplinks many local and thematic channels
• Covers Europe, Near East, and some part of Africa with different beams
• Sole (operational) cable tv operator in Turkey – Digital cable under KabloTV brand
• Last frequency reallocation was made on September 2014
• Current financial status: Virtually immortal (public money)
https://www.turksat.com.tr/tr/uydu/turksat-uydu

7. Digiturk
Facts
• Largest pay TV (DTH) platform
• Around 3 million subscribers
• Holds TV rights of Turkish Super League until 2022 season
• Pays around 500 mio $ per year for football rights
• Acquired by Bein Media Group from Qatar recently
• Basic package price (2016Q1): 22 TL/month
http://www.digiturk.com.tr/

8. D-Smart
Facts
• Secondary TV (DTH) platform
• Around 1 mio subscribers
• Mainly a packager of Turksat FTA feeds – lower operating costs
• Recently lost rights for European football (CL & Europa league)
• No solid distinguishing content
• Owned by Dogan Media
• Basic package price (2016Q1): 27 TL/month
https://www.dsmart.com.tr/

9. Cable TV
Facts
• Only Turksat runs a network (10 other licencees available but none operational)
• Less than 5% penetration
• Analog is being gradually replaced by digital network
• Teledunya (digital cable) has been rebranded as KabloTV in 2016
• Basic package price – analog (2016Q1): 13 TL/month
• Basic package price – digital (2016Q1): 15 TL/month
https://www.turksatkablo.com.tr/

10. IP TV
Facts
• Very small user base but growing
• Mainly driven by tri-play campaigns of telcos
• Tivibu: Turk Telekom’s (Leading telco) IPTV Platform
• Recently acquired European Football rights
• Recently launched DTH option
• Has a mobile version on GSM (after Avea – TT merger)
• Turkcell TV+: Turkcell’s (Leading GSM Operator) IPTV Platform
• Has a mobile version on GSM
• Vodafone: Might have intention to launch an IPTV platform in close future
• Has a premature mobile version on GSM
• Basic package price – Tivibu (2016Q1): 29 TL/month
• Basic package price – Turkcell TV (2016Q1): 15 TL/month
http://www.tivibu.com.tr/ http://turkcelltvplus.com.tr/

11. Terrestrial
Facts
• Percentage of “solely Analog Terrestrial watchers” is below 2% according to last
establishment survey (around 10% of households have AT as secondary source)
• Major TV channels still keep their AT networks up and running in spite of high
OpEx.
• Digital terrestrial regulation is still kept on hold by the authority
Digital Terrestrial
• The “digital terrestrial license tender” which is a prerequisite for digital
switchover was made in 2013 but failed
• Meanwhile due to decreasing penetration of terrestrial, TVs have gradually
lost their appetite for a new tender and started to lobby for assigning of
licenses without a tender
• Anten A.Ş., a consortium company set by major TV stations, has been still
waiting for the new tender in order to take action for the foundation of
consolidated digital terrestrial infrastructure
• Nevertheless Radio and TV regulator (RTUK) still seems to be persistent
about the license tender
• Telecommunication regulator (BTK) has recently allocated upper fq band to
4G
http://www.antenas.com.tr/

12. RTUK on distribution
• Radyo Televizyon Üst Kurulu is the main regulatory authority for broadcasting
• The supreme commission has 9 nine members each of which are assigned by
political parties based on the percentages of their seats in the parliament
on Distribution
• Apart from its duties regarding regulation of content and advertisement, it
also has power on Turksat by law
• RTUK enforces TV channels which are “targeting Turkish citizens in Turkey
via Turksat” (law statement), to hold a license from RTUK
• Consequently RTUK keeps pressure on Turksat to prevent non RTUK
licensed Turkish (targeting Turkey) channels
• The main two reasons of prevention is political orientation and improper
advertisement schemes of the channels
• Recently (2016 Q1) Turksat has blocked around 90 non-licensed or foreign
license holder TV channels (generally local or small broadcasters)
www.rtuk.org.tr

13. Thank you!
https://tr.linkedin.com/in/ozyurekli
by
pleasecontactmefortheexecutiveedition
whichcontainsmoreinfoandsubjectiveopinions
(itsfree!)