Since its privitisation in 1989 Turkish TV in 1989 has become one of the liveliest in the world. Turkish TV audiences are second only to the USA in terms of viewership. Turkish TV, once a big consumer of imported TV programmes now sells its own productions to 33 countries and getting ready to enter into the South American market. With the average cost of an episode for Turkish TV running between 250 and 900 thousand dollars TV production has grown into a major industry in Turkey.
To recognize this achievement as well as the quality and diversity of its programming the new TV awards, billed as the Turkish equivalent of the Emmy, are being launched under the leadership of Antalya's social democratic Mayor Dr. Mustafa Akadın, İlyas Başsoy, his campaign manager as well as the project director plus Deniz Ziya Temeltas.
Temeltas, in addition to being a former journalist of FNE, is known both in Turkey and internationally as a film distributor, organizer of film markets and festivals and this year as the new Artistic Director of both the International Golden Orange Film Festival and the new Ismail Cem Turkish TV Awards.
The Ismail Cem Turkish TV Awards are named after the Turkish statesman who was a man of vision and peace as well as the director of Turkish national television TRT. The event will take place at Mardan Palace, near Antalya, the top resort in Turkey where over 900 guests including film and TV stars, producers, directors, scriptwriters and other professionals of Turkish TV will gather. VIP guests will include the ownership and top management of Turkish TV. Other guests of honour are expected to include Maria Farandouri of Greece.
The selection process for the awards included ABG Nielson ratings as well as various juries made up of TV professionals and academics who chose the top five TV programmes, as well as actresses and actors and other finalists in a number of categories. There is also internet voting which will end one day before the awards ceremony. All TV programs produced in Turkey between autumn 2009 through spring 2010 were eligible.
The awards ceremony will be broadcast worldwide via DIGITURK, the main Turkish platform as well as MBC 4, a part of Arabian network to 25 Arabic speaking countries. Sky TV of Greece will also carry the awards show.
