Transition to subscription-based broadcast systems in television and transformation of television broadcast in Turkey

The rapid transformation in the field of television broadcasting on the basis of new media technologies today finds its response in many areas from the production of television content to its distribution and viewing. These transformations highlight the fundamental differences between traditional television broadcasting and today's digital, internet-based forms of broadcasting. Within the new publishing ecosystems, there are changes in both the production of content and the distribution of these contents. This transformation finds an important response in Turkey as well as in the rest of the world. In line with the digital transformation that has affected our country since the 2000s, new subscription-based broadcasting platforms, in other words, pay TV channels, and digital platforms that mediate the collective presentation of these channels have emerged. Digital television platforms that emerged in line with this transformation, which affects the content distribution and viewing styles in the television industry, not only offer a very different television viewing experience than analog television broadcasts, but also mediate a fundamental change by turning television into a paid structure. This thesis focuses on the analysis of the new industrial structure and operation created by these digital channel platforms, which play a role in structuring the television industry in Turkey on the basis of digital transformation. It is claimed that this, beyond a technological development, also mediates a transformation in the economic structure of the television industry. It is emphasized that this signifies a change not only in terms of the industry but also in terms of viewers, and provides a basis for television broadcasting in Turkey to be seen as a paid system. It is thought that this transformation is of fundamental importance in terms of the formation of today's more complex form of structuring of the television industry. In this context, it can be said that analyzing the transformation of television broadcasting into a structure that also includes a paid system on the basis of digitalization in Turkey gains importance in terms of making sense of our day. In this study, starting from this basic idea, the rise of pay TV platforms, which mediate the distribution of different channels on their own platforms on the basis of digitalization, is analyzed with a political economy approach that focuses on sectoral structuring. The role played by these digital channel platforms in the transformation of the television industry is focused on, and the meaning of this in terms of the way the industry is structured is questioned. The main data of the study were collected from the corporate websites of these platforms, as well as newspaper archives and industry reports, which will help to keep track of the change. At the end of the analysis, it has been seen that the paid digital channel platforms mediate the emergence and spread of new content distribution and viewing practices, highlighting the paid aspect of television broadcasting in Turkey. It has been concluded that these new publishers have increased the competitive relations in the sector and actually did not bring any change in terms of the dominant tendency of the sector structured on a commercial basis.