Why Turkish soaps work

byHabib Battah
Jul 7, 2013

Latin American soap operas like this one used to dominate Arab airwaves.

But they are increasingly eclipsed by Turkish productions. Better dubbing is a major reason for their rise, but social norms such as wardrobe–or lack thereof–may also play a role among distributors’ decision making.

I recently spoke to the BBC in this web feature about the abundance of dubbed Turkish soaps, which may also say a lot about the defficient state of programing on Arab TV.

Tags:
Arab TV
BBC

Habib Battah

Habib Battah is an investigative journalist and founder of the news site beirutreport.com. Battah has covered Lebanon and the Middle East for over 15 years and teaches journalism and media studies at the American University of Beirut. He is a contributor to Monocle, The Guardian, BBC World, Al Jazeera and others, a former fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University and two-time recipient of the Samir Kassir Press Freedom Award. Battah's investigative work was recently recognized for outstanding local reporting by the Columbia University Oakes Award for Environmental Reporting. Battah earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. in Near East Studies and Journalism from New York University.