Turkey’s State-Run TRT to Establish “Netflix-Like” Digital Platform

Turk­ish media report­ed in May that Turk­ish state broad­cast­er TRT will estab­lish an inter­na­tion­al dig­i­tal plat­form as an alter­na­tive to Net­flix so Turkey can “bet­ter explain” its stand on the nation­al and inter­na­tion­al lev­els. Accord­ing to a report by Turk­ish Minute:

May 9, 2022 Turk­ish state broad­cast­er TRT will estab­lish an inter­na­tion­al dig­i­tal plat­form that will be an alter­na­tive to Net­flix, the pop­u­lar Amer­i­can stream­ing ser­vice and pro­duc­tion com­pa­ny, its pres­i­dent has announced.  TRT Gen­er­al Man­ag­er Mehmed Zahid Sobacı, who spoke at a youth event in the south­ern province of Antalya on Sun­day, said TRT would estab­lish the dig­i­tal and youth plat­forms in 2023 and would invest more mon­ey in the pro­duc­tion of movies and games.  In his speech at the event, Sobacı said as the pub­lic broad­cast­er, they have a respon­si­bil­i­ty to acknowl­edge that the glob­al sys­tem is in cri­sis and that Pres­i­dent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has also been warn­ing about it.  “At a time when the glob­al sys­tem is in cri­sis, you, as a coun­try, have to bet­ter explain your stand on the nation­al and inter­na­tion­al lev­el. You need to elim­i­nate the effects of the cri­sis on your coun­try. You need to strength­en the rela­tion­ship between the nation and the state,” said Sobacı.

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The report notes that Turk­ish Pres­i­dent Erdoğan and his gov­ern­ment offi­cials have fre­quent­ly attacked Net­flix, claim­ing the plat­form spreads fake news and immoral­i­ty. Net­flix revealed in 2021 that it had removed select­ed titles from its Turk­ish cat­a­logs in Turkey in 2020 fol­low­ing gov­ern­ment requests.

In Jan­u­ary, inter­na­tion­al media report­ed that Turkey’s rul­ing gov­ern­ment is increas­ing­ly try­ing to con­trol and influ­ence art and cul­ture, cit­ing Erdoğan’s remarks that the “most pow­er­ful weapons of those who man­age the glob­al sys­tem today are the tools of culture”:

Dur­ing the Pres­i­den­tial Cul­ture and Arts Grand Awards cer­e­mo­ny in Decem­ber 2021, Pres­i­dent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addressed the crowd, say­ing, “The stronger you are in cul­ture and arts, the more you can direct and man­age your envi­ron­ment. It is a fact that the most pow­er­ful weapons of those who man­age the glob­al sys­tem today are the tools of cul­ture.” Pres­i­dent Erdoğan’s rul­ing Jus­tice and Devel­op­ment Par­ty (AKP) has slow­ly tak­en con­trol over much of the coun­try’s art and cul­ture scene in the years since his ascent to power.

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The Turk­ish Radio and Tele­vi­sion Cor­po­ra­tion (TRT) is the nation­al pub­lic broad­cast­er of Turkey, fund­ed by the Turk­ish gov­ern­ment. The chan­nel has been crit­i­cized in Turkey for its clear pro-gov­ern­ment bias and pro­vid­ing  lit­tle air­time for oppo­si­tion par­ties, even dur­ing elec­tion cam­paigns. TRT offers online news ser­vices in Turk­ish and 36 oth­er lan­guages, includ­ing French, Ger­man, and Span­ish. While its inter­na­tion­al Eng­lish-lan­guage chan­nel TRT World has rebrand­ed itself to join the ranks of BBC and Al Jazeera, it has been crit­i­cized for dis­sem­i­nat­ing con­tent pri­mar­i­ly aimed at sway­ing the per­cep­tions of an inter­na­tion­al audi­ence in favor of the Erdoğan gov­ern­men­t’s domes­tic and for­eign pol­i­cy objectives.