#Turkey's hit #ertuğrulghazi TV series launched with #Urdu dubbing in #Pakistan. A major event marked with diplomatic & political fanfare, & a trending hashtag #ErtugulUrduPTV. It also marks the arrival of #Turkish soft power in Pakistan, much later than the rest of Middle East. https://twitter.com/Mustafa_MFA/status/1254062409297408001

#Turkey's Arabic-language TV shows took the Middle East by storm about 25 years ago, slowly sidelining #Egyptian #Syrian #Lebanese #Jordanian and #Gulf productions, and capturing a lucrative market that gave #Turkish production houses millions of dollars in revenues.

The success & revenue from #Turkey's Arabic-dubbed TV series took Turkish production to a grand scale. It also introduced Arabic-speaking tourists & investors to Turkey's real estate and entertainment market, leading to another boom. #India picked on this Turkish example.

#India studied #Turkey's example, jumped into the lucrative market of dubbed TV series Mideast market in 2010. India offered dubbed productions to Arabic TV stations for free. This allowed for free marketing for India as a tourism & investment destination. https://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/idiotbox/arabic-dubbed-indian-serials-for-middle-east-audience_115070.html

The examples of #Turkey & #India were followed by #China, which jumped into the TV series Mideast market in 2018, with a marketing glitz in #Dubai for six popular #Chinese dramas dubbed in Arabic in 2018.

#Pakistan's TV productions were introduced in the dubbed market of Mideast through Humsafar, but initially the credit went to #India because Indian investors purchased the series & launched it as an Indian product in the #Gulf, to great success.

#Pakistani lead of Humsafar @_fawadakhan_ became an overnight sensation in Arab world. Media digging shifted focus to #Pakistan's TV scene. But without support from anyone in #Islamabad, Pakistani productions continue to be released thru #Indian channels

#Turkey captured regional market in dubbed TV productions for quarter-century now thru modern stories told in TV-format that is glittery & sexy. But since #Pakistan's audience is overly religious compared to Arab & Turkish audiences, productions like #Ertugrul are perfect match

So, as you see in this #thread, #Turkey's #Ertugrul's launch in #Pakistan as #ErtugulUrduPTV has a history preceding it, of the great market competition in the region that #Turkish TV talent introduced, sidelining major competition & opening the way to #India & #China to get in.