For centuries, Romanians defended their lands against Turk invaders and never let them conquer in war, but now Romanians seem to be conquered by Turkish soap operas.  A good number of Turkish soap operas are currently being broadcast by TV stations in Romania, and watching them has become something of a favorite past time for many Romanians, judging by ratings and by the TV stations’ eagerness to broadcast more of the genre.

First a niche segment promoted by some smaller TV stations – such as Kanal D, which has Turkish shareholders, and which broadcasts several Turkish productions - the Turkish soap opera movement has gone mainstream, as one of the country’s main TV stations also entered the game.

In late 2014, CME’s ProTV started broadcasting a Turkish soap opera called the Black Rose – Karagul in Turkish. Then in early 2015, it added a second Turkish series, The Power of Destiny (in Turkish Sila, the name of the main female character), which it airs during prime time hours, at 20:30 daily, Monday to Thursday.

The TV station, which has been facing financial problems and downsized heavily in 2014, replaced some of its local productions – including Romanian – made soap operas and local shows that used to run at prime time hours during the week – with Turkish movies. It now airs almost four hours of Turkish soap operas a day, including a one-hour re-run in the morning, and over an hour and a half during prime time.

The first episode of the newest addition to its program did not bring it the high ratings it was probably hoping for: on Monday, January 5, the soap opera Betrail, aired by competitor Kanal D during almost the same prime time slot, had much better ratings – two times higher among city viewers.

ProTV’s bet might have been backed by the good ratings The Power of Destiny/Sila had in other countries in the Balkans. In some of these countries, the series was aired by ProTV's sister TV channels, all under the CME umbrella, so broadcasting in Romania now could be a package deal. ProTV's strategy is to eventually move the newly added series to its channel dedicated to soap operas - Acasa TV, a move meant to help support its smaller, niche channels, through the main TV channel ProTV. It is yet to be seen however if they will win their latest Turkish bet on the Romanian market.

Romanians started getting the hang of Turkish soap operas in 2012, when Kanal D started airing Suleyman, which quickly became a favorite among Romanian audiences.  The series brought Kanal D high ratings, and opened up the door to a whole new soap opera world for Romanians, who made the switch from Latin telenovelas and from Korean soap operas, to the now popular Turkish productions.

Corina Chirileasa, corina@romania-insider.com