Talk of Europe’s giant media players and names like Kirch, Bertelsmann, Berlusconi, Canal Plus or BSkyB trip off the tongue. Few would think of Turkey’s Dogan Media as one of these huge players, but it’s more than true. And Dogan is backing a new digital satellite platform which is scheduled to launch in April 2000, and according to investment bankers Morgan Stanley, will in time be "Europe’s second-largest digital platform." Launch date is currently April 2000.

Dogan owns 25 per cent of the Turkish digital TV project – Dijital. Dogan’s partner is Cukurova Holdings, the parent company of mobile phone operator Turkcell and local ISP ‘Superline’. Total investment in the digital TV project is placed at $200 million, with the venture expected to break-even in the third year of operations. Dijital’s aim is to deliver multi-channel television to areas not served by cable, and currently cable (from Turk Telecom) passes barely one million homes.

Meantime, Turkey’s demand for new television opportunities seems insatiable, and Morgan Stanley in a major report on Dogan (‘The Key Media Player’, November 26) suggest Turkey’s media development is still in its earlier stages. As clues it states the number of newspapers purchased per 100 people is 8.6 compared with Europe’s average of 23.8. Morgan Stanley says the number of Internet subscribers in Turkey is 450,000, or 900,000 users. Turkey’s Internet usage is so under-developed as to represent just 1.4 per cent of Turkey’s 62.2 million population, compared with the European average of 12.5 per cent.

Dogan Media Holdings is Turkey’s largest media group, and the outfit behind the recent link-up with Turner Broadcasting to launch CNN-Turk, a Turkish-language localised version of CNN. Dogan also owns Kanal D, as well as other radio ventures. Combined, Dogan estimates the broadcasting arm to be already worth some $300-400 million. Turkey has enjoyed a 4.7 per cent average GDP growth since 1995, which also takes into account a major slip-back of – 2.8 percent for this year thanks to the economic downturn and the problems that followed the two major 1999 earthquakes. Year 2000 is expected to deliver a recovered 5.2 per cent GDP growth. There is also the future prospect of European Union membership.

Turkey’s per-capita ad-revenue is amongst the lowest globally, which means "there is very little downside potential" says Morgan Stanley, but suggests "considerable economic upside."

Dogan publishes Turkey’s first and third-ranked newspapers, Hurriyet and Milliyet, of which Hurriyet is the most profitable while Milliyet is considered to have a "well-educated readership" in the words of Morgan Stanley. Dogan’s share of Turkish newspaper ad-revenue stands at some 62 per cent. Dogan also has plenty of experience in supplying its newspaper content to overseas readers with joint-venture publishing operations in foreign locations, notably New York. Its various websites are also increasingly popular, and Dogan will use these to springboard Dogan Online, which is already valued at $50m.

Ferhat Boratav, editor in chief at CNN-Turk, talking exclusively to Interspace, says the Turkish media in general, television and print, has undergone a radical transformation in the past ten years, "It has grown into a world-scale operation with all of our major media groups now having overseas activities, sometimes significant. TV here is making a huge impact, and generally [the channels] have grown to the limits of natural growth within Turkey. The time is right and ripe for international joint ventures." He also said he saw the CNN and Dogan joint venture as "representing something bigger, and I see it opening the door for similar ventures in the future."

CNN-Turk launched in mid-October, and will take its place – almost certainly alongside other Dogan and Turner Broadcasting channel – on the Dijital platform, and that platform has its eyes set on the larger Turkish Diaspora. And this overseas appeal, whether to the large number of Turkish guest-workers in Germany, the Netherlands or elsewhere, are also likely to be in Dijital’s target audience, subject to rights’ clearances.

Forecasting the potential growth for Dijital is difficult just at the moment, and Morgan Stanley say over the coming months as the venture becomes fully formed they expect there to be "significant interest in digital broadcasting among domestic and international investors." They are almost certainly right.