“TV is dead. People no longer have time. The entertainment of the future is on social media.” This is how the team at Turkish media company “İki Dakika Creative House”, specialized in mobile-first vertical series, presented the Italian debut of Turkish vertical dramas.
What is it about? Of TV series shot in 9:16 format, i.e. vertically, made up of 50 or 60 episodes lasting approximately two minutes each and distributed on the main social media from TikTok to Instagram. Their characteristic is to hook the viewer in the first 3 minutes of viewing with a mobile-first language, many twists and a high emotional intensity.
Is this really the future of TV series? Is television and streaming platform entertainment definitively dead? We can’t say this yet but one thing is certain: vertical miniseries are a constantly evolving reality.
Turkish vertical dramas debut in Italy
“İki Dakika” arrives in Italy for the first time, a media company specialized in the creation of vertical series – a format designed for use on smartphones and for distribution on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube – belonging to the most varied genres from romance to drama to comedy and thriller.
The company has chosen Venice to present these new serial products and, specifically, the Teatro La Fenice, a symbol of rebirth, art and change.
At the basis of the project there is a clear vision: the vertical as a truly new narrative ecosystem, based on faster production times, highly interactive content and storytelling designed for the habits of the contemporary audience.
“We are here to add a new narrative form to the story repertoire – he explains İlkin Kavukcu, founder of the company with long experience in television journalism and editorial and strategic media management -. People no longer watch stories only on television screens or traditional platforms, stories are now in our pockets, in our hands, with us at every moment of the day.”
The vertical Turkish series that we will see in Italy (dubbed with AI)
Among the top titles that will be presented in Italy are “New Generation Family”, a family comedy in 50 vertical episodes with a cast that includes Eda Ece, Sumru Yavrucuk and İbrahim Selim.
“Semt Çocuğu”, a neighborhood comedy in 60 vertical episodes and “NKBİ – Ne Ki Benden İstediğin”, a romantic coming-of-age in 60 vertical episodes and a 65-minute horizontal version.
These series feature an Italian dubbing created with artificial intelligence.
Furthermore, the arrival of a new series shot in Italy was announced.
“The world is changing, we must adapt”
“Fashion changes, it never stays the same and now the world is changing so we try to adapt to this change – the Turkish actress explained to us at uisjournal.com Pelin Karahan, protagonist of vertical dramas -. Now people have much less attention span so we have to learn to give messages in a very short time. Nobody watches a very long series for hours and hours because nobody has time anymore and we have to adapt to this system.”
The social success of vertical Turkish series
“İki Dakika Creative House” social-first productions have reached up to 390 million views, 24 million unique users, over 3 million likes and interactions, and more than 615,000 shares; with over 600 million overall views and 100 million minutes watched across major series, achieved organically.
